Digimon::NG
by Peter Lake
Summary: The story of a group of ordinary people sucked into the digital world. With no relation to any established source material in the digimon world, this work is a new setting, allowing for a more mature look and themes that cannot be written with the established continuities. My tribute for 15 years of digimon fandom. enjoy.
1. 1-1

**0 Prelude**

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><p><em>The past 50 years has carried the world into a new, ever evolving era. Technologies come and go as fast as the days of the week. Throughout this speedy race of progress, one thing has become clear. The Internet will be the next major frontier to explore.<em>

_Several key researchers have already started to publicly work on Artificial Intelligence, and are already making huge progress towards that goal. But the really important breakthroughs has yet to come. Or so we believe. After all, DARPA has invented the Internet and kept it hidden for years before it became a public domain. Perhaps, just perhaps, somewhere deep within hidden facilities, a new life form is getting to know our world._

_This is its story._

_It begins on January 1__st__, 2020. A day to be remembered throughout history. On this day, the world has changed forever, even if it will take years for anyone to notice. That Wednesday did not have anything unique happening on it. Or so most of the world thought. But for a certain group of individuals, their life has been taken away that day._

_The survivors have all testified to have the same exact thing to happen to them. At precisely 00:00:00 UTC, a flash of bright light blinded them, only to be awaken 5 years later, having been in coma for the past time._

**1 Hack n' Slash 1.0**

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><p>Peter's back has been aching for a while now. Fifteen minutes ago he awakened to find himself lying on his back, having apparently fallen and lost consciousness. The pain has finally subsided a bit, and he started to open his eyes. That bright light came out of nowhere and caused him to fall backwards in his chair, at the worst possible timing. He was just about to finalize the wire from that Milman &amp; Co. business with no security what so ever into his bank account in the Caymans.<p>

_'I Hope they haven't noticed anything strange yet.' _He hoped. He opened his eyes to get up, and was blinded again by brilliant light. As he squinted his eyes, adjusting to the lighting, it became clear to him that he was no longer in his house. The sun has shined gleefully over him, a sun he was sure was not supposed to be rising right now. Not at 00:15. He raised his arm to look at his watch, and was bewildered. The entire digital display has gone haywire. _'I guess it must have taken a hit during that fall…'_ It was quite annoying, given that he just purchased this new smartwatch ten days ago. He started looking into his surroundings, and was amazed to see tropical flora all around him.

_'That is most definitely not home.' _He thought to himself. He reached for his pocket, and grabbed his smartphone. He opened the Maps app and tried to pinpoint his location. To his amazement, the map that appeared before him was none like he have ever seen before. The familiar shape of Earth's continents was not present, instead, a plethora of large islands were scattered all over the globe. After a few seconds or so, the GPS signal has finally locked onto his location and pinpointed next to the shore of one of the eastern islands.

He tried to log on to his blog, but got a weird 404 Error, with strange symbols across the web page.

"We're not in Kansas anymore …" He mumbled worryingly.

He heard a mumbling from behind him. Peter turned around and found a tree with a wide boxy trunk. A recording was screened on the trunk from an invisible projector, and after a few confusing minutes, Peter has realized it was a clip show from the movie 'The Wizard of Oz'. "I might as well enjoy it a little before I got searching for food…" he pondered loudly.

Peter was a programmer by trade, having been working in the business for the past 5 years. Lately, he started using the knowledge he has gained about cyber-security in his government contracted jobs to pad the coatings of his off-shore bank account. Even in 2020, some small (and large) businesses has yet to understand the important of cyber-security, and has left their bank account passwords out in plain sight for the entire Internet. Taking advantage of this, Peter's life has taken a turn for the better in the past months. He was finally able to afford that apartment in Rome he was searching for the last two years. _'And now everything has gone shitty.'_ The bitterness was starting to take over him. _'Better make camp and find some food…'_

Peter walked into the jungle beyond the Theatree (as he started calling it). As he pressed forward, he noticed he did not recognize any of the fruit that grew on those trees. He decided to taste one of the round-shaped fruits to see if it's edible. To his surprise, it had a beef-like taste, and the texture of a bread.

"NO YOU DIDN'T!" he heard a roar from his left. As Peter turned towards the source of the roar, a small, yellow dinosaur like creature with a brown, skull-like, helmet on his head came rushing at him, with its huge-ass claws coming towards his face at an alarming speed. He managed to dodge at the last possible moment.

"THAT IS MY TREE!" the yellow creature yelled at him again.

Peter was shocked. There was dinosaur in front of him. A small one. With yellow scales. And it was giving him a ranting about eating from _its _tree.

"GET OUT OF THE JUNGLE!" the dinosaur continued. "Or else I, ProtoGreymon, ruler of Blankchip jungle, will decimate your sorry-ass face from this island!"

"Fine, fine I'm leaving!" he yelled angrily back at the lizard as he started to turn away. "Even so, you should at least put a sign or something that says it's your jungle, so people will know to stay clear from the freaking mad lizard that rules it…"

"How did you just call me?" ProtoGreymon asked in an irritated tone, raising his claws again.

"A FREAKING. MAD. L-I-Z-A-R-D!" Peter answered, taunting him on purpose. As any good hacker would know, it was important to check the level of the security the target employs before dealing the actual strike.

"I'm ProtoGreymon! Not a mere Lizardmon!" The dinosaur said, obviously offended. "You ignorant brat shall pay for this insult!" ProtoGreymon swung his arm to strike again at Peter, but this time, Peter was Prepared, dodging him gracefully and delivering a kick to the dinosaur's knee, only to be deflected easily, causing him to twist his leg in pain.

"New around here, aren't we?" ProtoGreymon said in a mocking tone. 'How the fuck one doesn't know he should not hit greymon with his bare legs?"

"What the hell… is a greymon?" Peter replied while grasping for air. "And where the fuck am I for that matter. I do not know of any Blankchip jungle on Earth."

"You're in the Digital World imbecile, and Blankchip is the jungle in front of you. " ProtoGreymon chuckled a bit afterwards.

"Definitely not in Kansas…." Peter whispered to himself.

"Listen you poor bastard," ProtoGreymon continued. "Since you are obviously new around here, and given it was a good move you pulled here, I will give you this."

"You are in the Digital World. Where Digimon live. I am ProtoGreymon, the ruler of this jungle known as Blankchip. And you should take something that doesn't belong to you around here. In case that wasn't the law wherever you came from. One final tip: You can take whatever you want from the trees on the shores. Those are edible and are not part of the jungle. For the nice fight you gave me, I will allow you to return and challenge me one more time, once you deem yourself ready. Now, be gone from this jungle!"

It has been a week from that incident with ProtoGreymon in the jungle. Peter has been scraping by on the shores of the island, leaving off the weird triangular coconuts that were growing next to it. Yesterday he finished making an ad-hoc fishing rod and finally managed to hook a fish for dinner.

Strange things has been going around him all the time. Though only seeing it in the corner of his eyes, he could swear that he sometimes saw pieces of code floating around in the air. When he looked into the horizon, he could clearly see a floating giant SD card looming over the nearest island. He pondered on trying to swim there but he felt it would have been too risky, given how volatile the weather is at tropical regions. But today he finally got the proof he needed. When he cut open the fish he hooked yesterday, it became apparent that it was mechanical. Instead of veins, it has electrical circuits wiring its inside.

_'It's time I get some answers from that ProtoGreymon dude….'_ He figured.

Peter has been training to get back into shape since his fight with the so-called Digimon. But he still had no clue about how to get to the little lizard and its hardened body scales. A spark suddenly shot from the opened up mechanical fish, and it went through the air right into Peter's smartphone.

_'That's Weird…'_ he thought as he reached for the phone. When he looked at the screen, there was a blinking light around the web browser app. As Peter opened it, he landed at wiki page titled 'ProtoGreymon'.

_ProtoGreymon, rookie leveled, is the prototype of every Digimon of the greymon-species. With its rock hard scales and fierce looking helmet, it appears to be invincible, but has a known weakness at the back of its neck, which is exposed and is highly susceptible for hits, a flaw addressed in the later versions of the greymon-species._

"I thought there was no internet signal here…" Peter said to himself. "It does give me an idea about our next battle though…"

"I'm here again ProtoGreymon! It's time for that fight you promised me!" Peter shouted as he entered into the thickness of the jungle. "Or perhaps you're just too scared of me?"

"Not in your life!" ProtoGreymon appeared to his right. "Come, let's make it a proper battle this time. There's a clearing just right there."

ProtoGreymon led them approximately two hundred meters into the jungle, and indeed, a clearing has appeared before Peter. As they both took their stand across of each other, Peter noticed there were other creatures gathering around them.

"Don't mind them, they are just here to watch me." ProtoGreymon pointed at the creatures around them, looking like a small pink balls with floppy antennas. "Those Koromon are my subordinates, they won't do anything unless I tell them to."

"Fine by me. When do we start?" Peter shrugged him off.

"NOW" ProtoGreymon charged at Peter.

Peter focused his strength to dodge all of ProtoGreymon's attacks in the beginning of the battle, looking for an opening in his defenses. _'My goal is to get behind him. I must keep that in mind!'_ Peter reminded himself. But that was easier said than done. ProtoGreymon was proving himself to be a capable and trained fighter, despite Peter's years of Krav Maga trainings.

The stalemate continued to persist throughout the next fifteen minutes, slowly tiring Peter. _'I must not let the fatigue take over me…'_ he gasped for air, still looking for an opening. And then, the moment he has been waiting for has final arrived. ProtoGreymon rushed at him blindly, not paying attention to the ground beneath him, and stepped over a stone. Peter immediately seized the opportunity, side-stepping around him and placing himself at ProtoGreymon's back. Peter summoned all the strength left in him, and delivered the most powerful elbow he could muster at ProtoGreymon's back of the neck.

ProtoGreymon fell to his knees, his mouth open in pain. But it was the next thing to happen that surprised Peter the most. A sparkle of orange light has manifested from within ProtoGreymon, and started floating towards Peter. As it came to stop just at Peter's eyes, it materialized into something resembling a small SD card. The curiosity has gotten over him, and Peter grabbed the orange chip before him. Confused mumblings ensued around the clearing. The Koromon whispered among themselves.

"My Control Chip!" ProtoGreymon cried out. "How did you get it?"

"I have no idea…" Peter said. "What is this?"

"The control chip contains the essence of a Digimon!" ProtoGreymon seemed offended. "It holds my fighting power. Without it I cannot protect you anymore…" The last part seemed to be addressed at the little Koromon watching them. Peter could feel their fear as their whispers grew stronger.

"Were your protecting them?" Peter asked.

"I was given the task to protect them from the stronger Digimon around this island. At least until they all grow stronger and can fend for themselves." ProtoGreymon looked at the Koromon with pity. "I beg you! Help me train them in fighting before you leave us! You proved yourself a capable warrior!"

A strong buzzing sound interrupted the Koromon's whisperings. They all scattered away, seemingly in an attempt to find a hiding spot.

"CRAP!" ProtoGreymon yelled. "A Kuwagamon is here. Hurry! Help me fight him off! Pepper Breath!"

ProtoGreymon launched a ball of fire from his mouth, which flew into the tree tops behind Peter. As peter turned around to see what all the commotion was about, he paled in fear. A giant red stag-beetle was flying towards them, shrugging off easily the ball of fire that ProtoGreymon threw at him.

"It's no use! Run away!" Peter shouted at ProtoGreymon, who remained still in his place, taunting the giant beetle to come at him.

"I have to protect the Koromon, it's my duty!" he seemed to be pep-talking himself more than explaining his motives. "Please lend me some of the power in the control chip! It is yours now, and only you can control it!"

"But how?" Peter was confused. He rushed to take cover while examining the small orange SD card in his hand. _'Maybe my phone will be able to read something from it….'_ He thought as he opened his smartphone's back casing, and slid the control chip into the SD slot. A new application appeared in the phone, its icon consisting of an orange ring, surrounding an orange ball. No name was written under its icon.

"You must transfer the power from the key to me, than I will be able to digivolved and defeat it!" ProtoGreymon yelled as the Kuwagamon grabbed him, and flew towards Peter.

Peter opened the new app on his phone, and a menu appeared. All the option were grayed out except one, titled power transfer. _'That must be it!'_ Peter thought, but before he could activate it, the Kuwagamon grabbed him as well. Struggling to free his arms from the Kuwagamon's hands grasp, Peter saw ProtoGreymon was clinging to the giant red beetle's back, just about to fall. Peter quickly pressed the screen of his smartphone, and a bright light began to shine from it. The rays of light seemed to come out of the phone's camera lid, and were light orange in color.

"You did it!" ProtoGreymon cried in joy. But the rays of light did nothing to strengthen him. Instead, they strike at the few Koromon still in the clearing, and transformed them into reptilian creatures, not unlike ProtoGreymon itself.

"SPITFIRE!" a simultaneous shout could be heard from the clearing, and a huge ball of fire rushed at the Kuwagamon. As it hit it, the Kuwagamon cried in obvious pain, and flew away from the jungle. As it sped through the island, the Kuwagamon arrived at the ocean, and continued ahead, finally falling into it as the fire that crept on him reached its wings. Peter fell into the rough water beneath him. The last thing he saw before his body landed into the waved was ProtoGreymon jumping from the Kuwagamon's back, reaching out to Peter.

And it all went pitch black. A faint image of a blonde woman with only a thin piece fabric to cover her body with appeared before Peter, as he sunk into the depths of the ocean.

**2 Harvest Moon 1.0**

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><p>The wind swept pleasantly by Lola's face. She's been lying in this flower field for an hour by this time, unwilling to let go of the pleasant emptiness that surrounded her. She could feel her stress levels lowering with each passing minute, with a fine, soft, grass touching her bare feet. Only an hour ago she was in her bed, trembling at the thought of the morning to rise upon her. She was two weeks overdue in her latest contract, and her boss was already pissed at her for the failures of last three. Lola just knew tomorrow will be the final day of her internship at the company, and it frightened her. All she ever wanted was to be a graphical editor, and losing that internship would lower the curtain on her life-long dream. But the minute the flower field appeared around her, the tension was easing out, and she did not want to have it back.<p>

_'I just wish I would have worn something slightly warmer than this sleeping gown…'_ she thought as she started shaking from the chilling wind. Lola closed her eyes again, and curled her body to warm up a little. _'I wish it would just stay like that forever…'_

"Swipe."

Lola awakened. Was she dreaming? She could swear she just heard a voice near her.

"Swipe. Swipe."

_'There it is again!'_ Lola opened her eyes, unable to ignore the high-pitched voice anymore. As she slowly rose to a sitting position, her head ached from the sudden change in balance. _'I guess I haven't moved in a while now…'_ she thought as she stopped to recuperate. She looked around, trying to determine where the voice came from.

"Swipe- Oh hello there!" The voice said, apparently noticing her getting up. Lola turned around, and found the most bizarre sight she have ever witnessed. A humanoid creature, about the size of a small child, was sitting before her. The creature has a blossoming flower on top of what Lola assumed was its head. Its limbs were seemingly made out of curled leaves, and its entire torso was green, with two more leaves around the chest area. And to make everything worse, it seemed like it was playing with her smartphone.

"You were sleeping so I didn't want to wake you up." The creature said. Its mouth twisted to what Lola assumed was the shape of a smile.

"Uh… thanks, I guess." She said. "Umm, forgive for being so direct, but what are you?"

"I'm ProtoFloramon of course!" It responded with a joyous tone. "You never saw a ProtoFloramon before? Never mind that! I'm sure you'll fit in in no time! All the flowers said you were very nice to them, and careful enough not to land on them and smash them when you got here."

_'The flowers… said…' _Lola could feel the blood dropping from her head.

When Lola woke up again she found ProtoFloramon's face looking at her worryingly. "Are you O.K?" she asked.

"Uhh… yeah, I think. Did I faint?" Lola remembered the last thing ProtoFloramon said to her, and suspected the shock shut her mind down temporarily.

"You did. But you're fine now." ProtoFloramon's mouth twisted again into that smile-like shape. "So what's your name?"

"I'm Lola. Would you mind telling me where am I?" she asked.

"In the digital world of course!" The smile shape appeared again. "This is the Flora repository. Where all flowers leave in peace, and I tend to them."

"Would you mind if I stick around here for a little bit?" Lola asked, feeling a little embarrassed. "It seems I'm not anywhere near my home…"

"That would be great!" ProtoFloramon seemed thrilled at the possibility. "I've been wanting a more talkative friend for a while now. As much as the flowers talk, they are not very good at it… You are welcome to stay as much as you want!"

For some reason unknown to herself, Lola started laughing. The entire scenario she was in was still pretty much impossible and scary, but also curiously intriguing. This just might be that restart at life Lola yearned for in the past few weeks. And this meadow seemed like the perfect place to relax and enjoy in.

"Swipe!" ProtoFloramon returned her attention to Lola's phone. "Do you have any funny pictures in this thing? Some of the trees show me movies at times, but they all seem so old. The pictures I saw in this until now were pretty interesting though. But I'm looking for –"

"Hey that's private!" Lola shouted, feeling her cheeks turning red hot at the thought of ProtoFloramon laying her eyes on some very explicit pictures. "You should ask for permission before searching in someone else's belongings!"

"I'm sorry! I didn't know, please forgive me!" ProtoFloramon shouted in obvious tension. "I really want you to be my friend!"

"It's fine." Lola sighed. She liked the talking plant's overall behavior, and figured she would be a good companion to have with her. "Just give it to me for a few quick seconds…"

As Lola grabbed the phone from ProtoFloramon's leafy hands, she immediately deleted an entire directory of photos with a lot of X's in the files' names. _'No one should see these things here…' _she thought. "There you go, there should be a few funny ones over here." She said as she handed the device back to ProtoFloramon. The happy look appeared again on the plant-like creature's face, as she looked at the phone's screen, and burst with laughter at the sight of a kitten stuck inside a toilet paper roll. The sight of the laughing Digimon made Lola happy as well, and she joined ProtoFloramon on the small mound she was sitting at.

"Why are you tending this meadow?" Lola asked a few minutes later, realizing she knew nothing at all about her new found friend.

"Well, I was tasked to tend them!" ProtoFloramon smiled.

"Tasked by who?"

"I don't know." ProtoFloramon seemed puzzled a bit.

"Well… Have you ever done anything besides tending the flowers?" Lola continued her inquiry.

"No." the answer sounded very definitive. "I've been doing it for as long as I can remember. What about you? Are you always appearing in places out of thin air? Have you done anything else besides appearing out of thin air? I mean it would seem plausible and all but one could never know. Your life could be very specific, just like – AHH, Look out!"

"What? What?" Lola felt panic starting to creep onto her.

"There's a Flybeemon behind you!" ProtoFloramon pointed at her with genuine fear.

"It's a fly, what could it possibly do to – OH FUCK!" Lola screamed as she turned around and found herself facing a giant red insect floating in front of her.

"Run away, it's not a very nice Digimon this one!" Lola did not need any more warnings, and ran after ProtoFloramon. "I know a hiding place nearby, Follow me!"

As they both ran towards the trunk of a tree, Lola could hear the buzzing sound of the Flybeemon's wings getting stronger and stronger. As she peeked behind her back, she could see its long abdomen curling in her direction, revealing a large nasty sting. As she turned her head back to ProtoFloramon, she caught a glimpse of the plant disappearing into the trunk of a tree.

Lola ran to the trunk and stood in front of it, bewildered. What should she be doing? Her eyes must have betrayed her. The sound of the Flybeemon kept getting stronger and stronger, and Lola was getting more nervous by the second.

"Hurry up!" a leafy hand appeared from within the trunk, and pulled her forward. As Lola braced herself for the incoming impact, she was surprised to land inside a metallic tube, causing her to fall over from the momentum generated by ProtoFloramon's pulling. They both fell, and Lola landed head first onto ProtoFloramon's chest.

"Sorry…" She said, nervously getting up, after she realized what she fell on. "Are you OK?"

"Yes… that's nothing!" ProtoFloramon tried to appear strong, but Lola could see her rubbing her back in pain.

"You saved me…" Lola said, looking at her friend with sheer gratitude.

"You would have done the same thing!"

_'If only she knew…'_ Lola thought. "But what should we do about that giant ugly thing outside. Surely hiding won't make it leave this place alone."

ProtoFloramon looked at the floor, with a shamed face. "Well… you see…"

"Oh… So…" Lola searched for words, but could not find them. She was beginning to understand that the happy-go-lucky nature of her new found friend might just be a mask, to avoid the nastiness of life in this world. The realization made Lola feel something she hadn't felt in a long time, and without knowing what she was doing, she reached down and hugged her friend, who started weeping into tears. "It'll be fine… I'm sure we'll find a way to make this ugly bastard leave the meadow alone…"

"Thanks Lola…" ProtoFloramon wiped her tears. A bright green light appeared in her hand, and she reached out to Lola. "Take my control chip. You might be able to do something with these powers to defend us. Me, I'm just too scared right now…"

As the green light faded, a small, green, SD card was resting at ProtoFloramon's hand. Before Lola could say anything, the card floated straight towards her phone, and inserted itself into it. A new application blinked on the phone's screen, it's icon consisting of a green line at the general shape of a heart, and as Lola tapped on it, a green light appeared again, this time originating from the smartphone's camera lid. The light busted out of the metallic inner parts of the tree trunk, and shot towards the Flybeemon. The red insect was struck with a huge force, sending it smashing through the trees behind it.

"Lola!" ProtoFloramon rejoiced. "You did it! That ugly thing won't bother our meadow anymore!" Lola could see the admiring face of her companion glowing with joy as ProtoFloramon looked at her, and could not help herself but smile back. As they both got out of the metallic trunk, Lola could see a stream flowing through the meadow, which seemed to be pouring from a hole in the trees, where Flybeemon was shot to.

"That hole won't do any trouble to the meadow right?" Lola asked, pointing at it.

"I don't know…" ProtoFloramon said. "I hope not…"

"No point worrying about it now then!" Lola decided. "I might as well take a bath in this water while it is here."

Lola walked towards the water, taking off her sleeping gown. "Are you coming?" She turned around and saw ProtoFloramon looking at her with amazement.

"Did you just digivolved?" she asked. "Because this is how I want to look when I do!"


	2. 1-2

**3 Hack n' Slash 1.1**

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><p><em>'This feels like a Deja-Vu'<em> Peter thought to himself, as he opened his eyes. He was lying on his back, and his entire body ached. As he got up, he saw the reptilian creature he knew as ProtoGreymon was lying beside him, face into the sand, apparently passed out. Peter gave him a small nudge.

"Hey, you OK there?" he asked. ProtoGreymon moved a bit, and Peter could hear a low rumbling from beneath the sand. About a minute later, ProtoGreymon finally mustered enough power to pull himself up.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He said as he spat some sand out of his mouth. "You?"

"Yap. I'm fine." Peter was somewhat relieved. "Did you just jump after me when I fell into the ocean?"

"So what if I did?" the reptile gave him a meaningful look, one that Peter could only interpret as a declaration of truce between the two of them.

"It's just… very nice of you. Considering what you did when we first met." Peter felt embarrassed just saying that. "The name's Peter by the way. So, where do you think we are?"

"It's definitely not Blankchip." ProtoGreymon announced. "I do not recognize this beach, and I know everything about Blankchip Island!"

A flash of brilliance crossed Peter's mind. He recalled the way the GPS pinpointing worked in his phone back when he arrived into the digital world. He reached out for his phone, and realized that it is conveniently dried out, seemingly untouched by the salty waters of the ocean.

"The phone might be able to tell us where are we." He explained to ProtoGreymon as he waited for the GPS to lock. A red dot finally appeared on the map. Peter instructed the application to display his last known location, and a green dot appeared on another island in the map.

"It appears that we are really close to Blankchip. We are on an island directly to the west of it." Peter explained the information presented on the phone's screen.d only interpert lf up. im, apperantly passed out. "We should look for supplies before we figure out where we should be going next."

"Seems reasonable enough." ProtoGreymon agreed. "So what was it that you did to make all the Koromon digivolve?"

"I thought you'd be able to tell me." Peter seemed confused. "I just pressed on the app that the control chip installed on my phone."

"Hey don't ask me! As far as I can remember I was always on Blankchip, protecting the Koromon!"

Both of them began walking towards a forest near the beach. Acting on a silent agreement to look for supplies.

"So, this world is composed of data. Am I right?" Peter asked, testing his assumptions on ProtoGreymon.

"Indeed. All Digimon are made out of data." ProtoGreymon explained. "We grow stronger by collecting the data of other Digimon. When we gather enough of it, we are able to evolve into a more powerful Digimon."

"Interesting…" Peter remarked.

They both continued walking silently, occasionally stopping to look at the trees, but so far, none of them seemed to bear any fruit. The faint sound of running water crossed Peter's ears.

"I think there's a stream next to us." He said. "Perhaps the water are drinkable."

As they crossed the forest towards the source of the sound, more and more flowers were beginning to appear in their path. As they reached the stream, they both drank from the sweet waters it offered, relaxing their thirst.

"We should follow the stream." ProtoGreymon said. "It should provide water to other Digimon living around here… perhaps they could give us some food."

Peter nodded for agreement, and they both continued silently upstream. Peter's mind wondered back to the faint images he saw just before passing out in the ocean. _'I wonder who is she…'_ the images themselves seemed to disappear the moment he saw them. They were almost dream-like, just like how you forget a dream the more you try to recall it. When it's a dream, the mind usually recycles all the information he saw during the day that way. But here… Did Peter even see her before this? He was pretty sure he didn't, which means perhaps it wasn't his mind recycling the data. But the memory of the blonde-haired women was carved into his mind. _'If she's here somewhere, I'll find her…' _he decided.

"Yo! Peter!" ProtoGreymon called him. "Check this out!"

The stream led both of them to a huge stone building, with a tunnel beneath it to let the stream pass through. A long flight of stone stairs was on either side of the tunnel, leading to a small stone room on the top, decorated at the style of south eastern Asian temples. The flora of the island has covered almost every part of the room, giving in the fact that this structure must have been in existence for a long time by now. The two companions looked at each other, confirming that both of them intended to look into the temple, and started climbing the stairs towards the small stone room at the top.

At last both of them reached to the entrance of the room. Atop the stone door in front of them, a strange symbol was carved to the stone. It appeared as a line circling a ball. Peter recalled the image from their encounter with the Kuwagamon. It was the same one as the icon of the application that ProtoGreymon's control chip has installed on Peter's phone. They both tried to push the door open, only to realize it's too heavy for them.

"Man… that sucks…" ProtoGreymon complained. "I really wanted to see what's inside."

Peter took out his phone again. To his astonishment, the control chip's application was flashing again. When he tapped it, an orange light came through the phone's camera lid again, but this time, it was heading towards the carved stone symbol at the top of the stone door. The symbol's carved parts were painted orange by the light, and a loud trembling could be felt, as the stone door slowly slid to the right, revealing the dark room inside.

"Are you sure you are not some kind of Wizardmon?" ProtoGreymon asked suspiciously. "'Cause that's exactly the kind of stuff a Wizardmon will do."

"I'm sure. I'm a human, not a Digimon, you know." The loud trembles stopped as the door disappeared completely from their view. "Let's get inside."

Inside the stone structure, a vastly empty room sprawled before them. The only noticeable features were another carving of the symbol on the wall in front of the door, and a small altar beneath it, holding a small stone box. As Peter looked around, he noticed a wall to his right, seemingly cutting off the room from the other stone door at the other side of the broken fence. They both approached the stone altar, and as they stood before it, the light from the phone shined again, filling the carving above the altar at the same manner as the carving on the door leading to the room.

"Well, open the damn box already!" ProtoGreymon seemed restless. "It must contain some sort of immense power!"

Peter smiled a little at the sight of his relentless reptilian companion. He was rather curious himself regarding the contents of the box. It might hold some answers he has been seeking ever since he got into this weird world. Why would the symbols react to his smartphone? How come every living thing here is comprised of data? And most important of all, why is he here? Peter grabbed the stone box' lid with both of his arms, and pried it open. Inside was a smaller box, made of metal, and it had orange ornaments all around it. Peter removed the metallic box from its resting place, and placed it on the altar, before the stone box. Carefully, he opened the smaller box' case, and marveled at its contents. Red velvet padded the inner walls of the box, and on top of it, laid two more orange SD cards. Both of them had a picture on their surface, depicting a large ominous reptilian creature resembling ProtoGreymon, though much more frightening.

"Are those control chips as well?" he asked ProtoGreymon as he removed the chips from their velvet rug.

"I think so…" ProtoGreymon examined them. "But those belong to other Digimon then myself. The one on the left depicts a Greymon, and the one on the right depicts a GeoGreymon."

"GeoGreymon seems way more badass." Peter pointed at GeoGreymon's extended claws and horns.

"At champion level perhaps. But Greymon's later evolutions are way better." ProtoGreymon defended what he seemed to regard as an idol. "Those Digimon are some of my possible digivolutions." He explained.

"So if I load them into the phone, you'll be able to evolve right?" Peter asked. "I mean, that's where your control chip is right now."

"I think so. Go ahead and try!" ProtoGreymon seemed excited.

Peter opened his phone's casing, and noted that the SD slot seemed empty. He flipped the phone, and the application was still there. _'I guess it's just more of the weirdness of this world…' _he shrugged. "Which one would you like to try first?" he asked ProtoGreymon as he inserted the first card into the SD slot. It shined for a brief moment, and the SD slot was empty again.

"Greymon indeed. He's the best as I've told you already." ProtoGreymon said while Peter was inserting the next chip, which shined and disappeared as well.

Peter opened the application again, and this time, a new option became available for selection, titled 'Digivolution'. Peter tapped it, and a selection screen appeared before him. Peter could slide between pictures of Greymon and GeoGreymon, but they were grayed out. "Perhaps we need something more to make these work…" he told ProtoGreymon.

"Let's check the room on the other side!" ProtoGreymon suggested. They both existed through the door, and as they left, the sliding stone door closed behind them.

ProtoGreymon, thrilled more than ever, ran towards the low stone fence. As he jumped over it, he disappeared, and appeared right before Peter, causing them to clash head to head.

"FUCK! That hurts!" Peter cried as ProtoGreymon's helmet smacked him right in the forehead.

ProtoGreymon seemed confused. "How did I get here?" He asked Peter loudly, obviously disappointed.

"Let's test this fence again." Peter suggested and threw a rock at the fence's direction.

"OUCH!" this time it was ProtoGreymon who cried when the rock hit him in the back of the head. Peter laughed out loud. "You did it purpose didn't you?"

"I swear… I had no idea that would happen…" Peter could not stop himself from laughing. "Come on, let's make camp here. I'm starving, and this place at least has water next to it."

_'This place is truly peculiar…' _Peter thought. _'That barrier does remind me of some web security concepts. It's almost like a fire wall. I wonder, when a data is recycled in the digital world, does it resembles to the recycling of data our mind employs, dreams?'_

**4 Harvest Moon 1.1**

* * *

><p>"So, do you have anything else to eat here besides leaves?" Lola asked. She was a vegetarian of course, but even still that doesn't mean she only ate leaves. Fruits and vegetables would be a welcomed addition to her daily menu in this place.<p>

"Some fruits are supposed to grow on the trees upstream." ProtoFloramon replied. "But I'd be careful about wondering over there. The forest could be very creepy at times…" the plant's eyes looked at the ground with a nervous look on them.

"I'm sure that with you on my side, nothing will be scary anymore." Lola encouraged her friend, but that made ProtoFloramon look even more nervous.

"How could you say that?" she cried, apparently insulted. "You are the one who kicked the Flybeemon away from the meadow! Don't lie to me to make me feel good!"

Her reaction came as a shock to Lola. She didn't realize her friend was so sensitive to words and tones. "It was your control chip that gave me that power…" Lola comforted her. "I'm calling it as much your work as mine."

The Digimon smiled at her, looking happy again. Lola felt the urge to hug her partner again, and was all too happy to comply it. "Just stay close to me, and I'm sure nothing will hurt us!" Lola said as she grabbed ProtoFloramon's hand, and started walking towards the forest.

The forest itself appeared magical to Lola. There were trees of all kinds and shapes, some wooden, some metallic, and other apparently made of some plastic material. The stream flowed silently to their left, and a swarm of butterflies of many colors flew past them every once in a while.

Lola and ProtoFloramon have been walking for an hour by now, but no fruit-bearing tree has crossed their path. Lola could feel her partner's hand shaking as the sun started to set, and night's sky darkened the forest.

"Don't be afraid of the dark… here this will lighten our path." Lola calmed ProtoFloramon as she took out her phone and activated its flashlight application. The effect was almost immediate, and the digimon's tight grasp of Lola's hand have loosened a bit.

Very soon a strange shape have broken into the view of the forest. A huge stone building towered atop the small stream, letting pass through its foundations. A long staircase led to the top, where a small stone structure was visible. Every now and then, a light flickered from the stone structure's topmost floor.

"A bonfire…" Lola mumbled. "There could be someone up there to share his food with us..." she said as her stomach growled.

The two partners started the climb up to the stone structure's top floor. As Lola approached the top, she saw two doors on the wall of the stone room. One was on the other side of a small stone fence. As she looked around, there was no sign of the bonfire she saw from the forest. Lola mustered her confidence, in order to keep ProtoFloramon's fear at bay.

"They are probably inside, it's a cold night." She said with as much confidence as she could. As Lola examined the stone door before her, she noticed a heart symbol was carved on top of it, very similar to the one in the icon of the application that was on ProtoFloramon's control chip. She turned her phone towards her to look at it again, and noticed that the application was flashing again, just like it did when Flybeemon was attacking her and ProtoFloramon in the meadow. Lola tapped it, and a ray of green light came out of the camera lid again. This time it stroke the carved heart atop the stone door. The carving was filled with the light, and started to glow by itself. As it did, the stone door started sliding towards the left, revealing the room inside.

"Come on, we can at least warm up inside!" Lola encouraged her friend. As she entered the room, the light from the stone carving burst through the wall, engulfing another carving of a heart at the wall in front of her. Under the second carving was a small altar with a stone box on top of it. Lola opened the box, and found another box, smaller, from metallic material, that had green ornaments. Inside the second box were two green chips, one depicting a huge cactus with boxing gloves, and the other depicting a large monstrosity with the head of a sunflower. Both of the chips flowed as Lola touched them, and beamed themselves straight into her phone.

"LOLA!" Lola could hear ProtoFloramon calling her name. "The door is closed!"

Lola turned around, and to her surprise, the stone door by which both of them had entered has been shut. A speck of desperation penetrated her thin armor of false confidence, and was followed by a tear flowing from her eyes. She failed her friend. She promised nothing wrong will happen to them as long as they kept together. But here they are together, stuck in a stone room, with no way out. Lola embraced her partner and started weeping. As her partner saw this, ProtoFloramon started crying as well. Lola realized her friend was only a small child in this world, and she carelessly led her into this dangerous place.

"I'm sorry…" She cried. But the horror did not stop there. Soon enough, the floor around her started shaking, and Lola grabbed her little friend, pulling her into the far corner of the room. ProtoFloramon curled in her embracing body, as the stone wall on the left side of the room exploded, sending huge piles of dust rock flying across the empty space.

**5 Hack n' Slash 2.0**

* * *

><p>Peter and ProtoGreymon were sitting around a small bonfire they erected in front of the entrance to the stone room, the smell of roasted fish they caught earlier filling the air around them.<p>

"So there are six levels of Digimon:" Peter recounted the words ProtoGreymon just explained to him. "Fresh, in-training, champion, ultimate and mega." A thoughtful nod from the yellow reptile signaled to Peter he was correct. "And when you gain enough strength, you are able to transform into the next level?"

"Digivolve, not transform." ProtoGreymon corrected him. "That's about the summary of it. So what about you, what happens to humans when they get stronger?"

"Well, as time passes, a human will age, growing in size for several years, and finally setting on its final size and look." Peter did his best to describe to complex process of aging.

"Seems weird…" ProtoGreymon was confused. Peter smiled at the reptile's baffled look, when he noticed something behind it, across the magical barrier they perceived as a stone fence. A flash of light blinked atop the stone door across the barrier, and for the briefest moment, Peter could swear he saw a blonde woman in front of it. The woman was dressed in what appeared to be a very thin night gown, and behind her was a child sized green flower, seemingly talking to her.

_'Was that the woman I saw in the dream?'_ he pondered. Peter grabbed a small rock from the ground, and threw it at the barrier again, a mere moment before the image flickered again, this time with the stone door across the barrier sliding open. To his amazement, the rock did not return through the other side of the barrier. "Did you see that?" he asked ProtoGreymon. "There were a woman and a Digimon just behind the barrier."

ProtoGreymon turned around, but the barrier was already invisible again. "I see nothing." The reptile said decisively. "Are you sure you aren't just desperate for some female of your species?" Peter could swear he saw a mischievous smile on the little dinosaur's mouth.

"I'm sure…" Peter looked at the Digimon with a dangerous look, daring him to say that again. "ANYWAY, I'm going inside the room to check it out."

"Suit yourself." ProtoGreymon responded in an uncharacteristically laconic fashion.

Peter tapped the control chip's application again, causing the carved rounded symbol to blink again, opening the door. As he entered the room, the stone walls around him flickered again, for a mere moment, showing him a vision of two green rays of light directed at the blonde woman's hand. When the walls flickered again, Peter found himself facing the most devilish smile he have seen in his life.

A tall humanoid figure was standing in front of him, where the stone altar used to stand. The figure was clad in black leather, and belts were all around its limbs and torso. A white skull was painted on the creature's right knee-cup, and a red bat on its chest and boots. A black masked covered most of the creature's face, leaving an opening only for the eyes and the area around the mouth, which was in a deathly shade of pale white. Two horns erected from each side of the devilish humanoid's head, and two large, black, leather wings sprouted from its back. The wings themselves were torn and full of holes.

"ProtoGreymon! Run!" Peter cried for his partner, but the stone door was already closed. With his Digimon friend on the other side, Peter had no idea what he could do against this devil that stood before him.

"Resistance is futile." The devil said quietly, and grabbed Peter's head by one of his monstrously long arms. "I'll be taking those chips please." The devil said all too quietly.

"Never!" Peter shouted, sending his leg as strong as he could towards the devil's crotch, but the reach was not enough, with Peter's leg barely scraping the black as night leather. A rolling evil laugh erupted from the devil's mouth.

"There's another one on the other side?" he asked. "Now am I lucky…"

The blonde woman flashed through Peter's mind, realizing he was not the only person in mortal danger over here. "RUN! RUN AWAY, GET AS FAR AS YOU CAN!" he tried to warn her, hoping that his voice will be able to penetrate the magical barrier, warning her of the incoming danger. The devil through Peter against the stone wall, and a cracking sound pierced the air. Peter could feel his broken leg, and screamed in pain. A trail of blood flowed from his leg, at the place the broken bone penetrated the skin and stuck outside like a weird pin.

"Should I repeat myself?" the devil asked. "Resistance. Is. Futile. The chips now please."

Peter was devastated. The woman he saw in his dreams was so close to him, and yet he would probably die just before this devil kills her as well. But then, a shred of hope slipped into his heart. The stone door blasted open, and ProtoGreymon was standing at the entryway.

"No one messes with him but me!" he yelled, rushing at the leather clad devil. "SPITFIRE!"

A ball of flame erupted from ProtoGreymon's mouth, but the devil emerged unscathed.

"Pathetic…" the devil laughed. "For a rookie to take on a champion as myself…" A long black arm grabbed one of the little yellow reptile's claws, reaping it apart from the rest of ProtoGreymon's body. A hallowing shriek filled the room, piercing through Peter's chest. But the merciless devil was not yet done. Her grabbed ProtoGreymon's remaining hand, and pulled it apart as well, this time gorging on the bleeding stump in his hand. The shrieking sound coming out of ProtoGreymon's mouth were to screeching for Peter to want to listen to them. He tried to look away, but the rivers of blood that flowed from ProtoGreymon's torn limbs caught his eyes.

"NO!" Peter shouted, but was unable to move due to his broken leg. Suddenly, as the bleeding half-eaten stump was tossed aside by the devil, Peter felt a surge of immense heat through his pocket. His smartphone was almost burning, and the control chip's application blinked again. As the realization struck him, he started yelling.

"It's time! ProtoGreymon! Digivolve!" Peter yelled as he tapped on the first image of a greymon that appeared on screen.. "y the davil emereged at the entryway.

ProtoGreymon's body and the bleeding stump started to disintegrate into small particles of orange light, and reassembled again together, growing larger than the small reptile Peter knew. First emerged his long tail, than the clawed arms and legs. The brown helmet of its head was the last to materialize, featuring a slick design with two side horns, and one horn at the center of the helmet.

"GREYMON!" The huge lizard roared. "Prepare to be pawned, bitch! MEGA FLAME!"

A giant ball of fire was shot from Greymon's mouth, pushing the black devil towards the opposite wall, and smashing a hole into it. Between the dust and rubble, Peter could see the black devil's charred corpse disintegrating into particles. The blonde woman was behind a pile of rubble on the other side of the room, holding a small green Digimon in her arms. Peter could see her head turn to look at him, and as their eyes met, his sight darkened.


	3. 1-3

**6 Harvest Moon 1.2**

* * *

><p>Lola opened her eyes, and peeked to see what was going on. She could catch the glimpse of dark particles vanishing in the air. A huge dinosaur with orange scales and a brown, horned, helmet stood behind the newly created hole in the room's left wall.<p>

"Peter's hurt!" The dinosaur said in its deep growling voice. "Help him! Please!"

As soon as the sentence was done, the huge dinosaur glowed in an orange light, and as the light faded, a smaller one was standing in its place. The little reptile than collapsed and fainted. As Lola looked around the new portion of the room, she spotted a young men laying against the wall. A nasty looking piece of bone has sprang out of his apparently broken leg. As their eyes met, a small smile appeared on his face, and then his eyes closed, his head falling forward.

"I need help ProtoFloramon!" Lola cried and released her partner from her grip. "Hurry! Go outside and get a few sticks and leaves! We need to tend their wounds!"

"Aye!" the Digimon said and ran off through the blasted door on the other side of the room.

In the meanwhile, Lola moved both the injured men and the small dinosaur side by side, and lay them both on their backs. The little reptile seemed to be in a better state than the man, and was seemingly just too exhausted. The man's leg on the other side, was in a dire shape. Lola recalled her first aid training during her teenage school years, and tried to find the most suitable way of treating such wounds.

_'Before setting the broken bone, the bone itself must be place at its appropriate position…'_ she recited from memory, her years of volunteering in the local hospital coming back to her. Lola placed both her hands on the broken bone of the man's leg. "Sorry about that…" she whispered, and pushed down as hard as she could. A crackling sound sliced the air, and the bone was back inside the leg, just as ProtoFloramon returned into the stone room.

"I got what you needed!" the Digimon said with a jolt of vitality.

"Alright, place the sticks around this leg." She ordered the leafy Digimon. "And hold as tight as you can while I tie them."

A few heart pounding moment later, Lola let herself breath slowly at last. The setting seemed to have gone well, and both of the injured were resting peacefully, their pulse lowering to normal levels.

"Who do you think they are?" Lola asked ProtoFloramon. "I thought there are no humans in the digital world."

"There shouldn't be any… I guess he got here the same way that you did." ProtoFloramon expressed Lola's thoughts as well.

"I wonder what happened there…" Lola pondered. "Better find some clean water and food for when they wake up. I think they'll be fine alone for a few minutes. Care to come with me?"

"I'd love too!"

"Hey," Lola turned to her Digimon friend while they walked back towards the stone structure, carrying some weird fruits and water in makeshift bags that ProtoFloramon created from leaves. "How come the large dinosaur turned into a smaller one?" she asked.

"You mean the Greymon?" the Digimon said, probably referring to the dinosaur. "He must have been exhausted from sustaining his champion form, so he degenerated into his rookie level."

"Does that mean that you will digivolve too someday?"

"Hopefully," ProtoFloramon answered. "I hope to become as beautiful as you when I digivolve." She said with an adoring look on her face.

"I wouldn't want you to become as large and monstrous as that Greymon…" Lola said, her mind starting to wonder.

_'Who is this man?'_ Lola wondered. He most definitely recognized her before passing out, but she has no idea who he was. Lola was damn sure she have never met or seen him before in her life. She would have remembered that unique shade of blue that was in his eyes. Something in his eyes and smile calmed her, just before the man fainted, almost as if a looming evil presence that haunted her mind was gone with that explosion that revealed him to her. _'The dinosaur called him Peter… it's a beautiful name…'_

Lola looked down, and a thin tan line on her finger caught her attention. She clenched her fist hard against the makeshift leaf bags, and continued walking, trying her best not to think about it. It was not the time to think about such issues, especially in her current love life situation. Lola looked up again, and was surprised to see they were already at the base of the stone stairs leading to the blasted stone room.

When Lola entered through the blasted door, she found the small dinosaur sitting beside his wounded friend, the both of them talking silently.

"Peter, Right?" She asked nervously. "Are you feeling better?"

"Yes." The young man responded. "Thanks for taking care of us. Both me and ProtoGreymon here are grateful for that." The little reptile by his side nodded.

"That's OK…" Lola mumbled. "I'm Lola by the way…" she could not help but feel overly aware of her night gown. Peter appeared to have noticed it, and took of his jacket.

"Here," he said, offering the jacket. "It must be cold as hell out there like that."

The little dinosaur got up, and addressed ProtoFloramon. "I'd like to have a little chat with you." He said, and led her to the far side of the room, winking at the sitting man in front of her in the most obvious way possible.

"He's getting on my nerves at times." Peter said. "But I like him."

"So what happened over there?" Lola asked, trying to ignore the situation. "Thanks." She said as she took the jacket from his hand, and wrapper it around her.

Peter told his story to her, about how he appeared on this weird world a few days ago. About how he met ProtoGreymon, and helped him protect a village of Digimon, only to be thrown along with the dinosaur into the ocean, washing up on the shores of this island. When Peter told her about the black-clad devil that attacked him in this very room, her mouth opened in a complete shock, refusing to believe such horrors exist in this world.

"That's intense…" she said at last. "But one thing still bugs me… did you smile when you first saw me, after the wall exploded?"

"Oh that…" he said, suddenly blushing a bit. "Well, when the Kuwagamon threw me into the ocean, I passed out. But before I blacked out entirely, I could see an image of a blonde woman, very much like you, with a… um… blanket covering her."

Lola blushed as well. It was clear the man was just trying to be polite and not embarrass her, but she was damn sure that is the same photo she deleted from her phone the day she met ProtoFloramon. An awkward silence pierced through the air for a few seconds.

"So how did you get here?" Peter tried to renew the conversation.

"Well, I was in bed… and then I was here." Lola recalled her own time in the digital world, but felt it wasn't as exciting as Peter's, but as she kept talking, the awkwardness of the previous minutes has passed away, and Lola had become much less aware of herself.

The chat continued, as each of them told the other about their previous life's occupation and trade, and kept on going into a light-hearted small-talk. Lola sat next to Peter, laying her back against the wall, and felt more and more comfortable. It was nice to see another human in this strange world, giving her a sense of familiarity she needed to keep herself from drowning into numbness.

"You don't mind if ProtoFloramon and I will tag along with you guys after you get better, right?" she asked him.

"Not at all," he said. "But you'll need the little bastard's approval. He seems to be very interested in having only those he deems worthy around him."

"I'm sure I'll be able to charm him enough…" Lola said in an exaggerated seductive tone, and started laughing. When she stopped, she saw Peter was drifting into slumber. As he fell asleep, probably still exhausted from the injury, Lola curled her knees up to her chest, and laid her head on his shoulder. Lola closed her eyes, and wished everything could stay the way it is right now.

**7 Lone Wolf 1.0**

* * *

><p>The bullets pierced the air around John, as he dropped to the ground to take cover. A minute ago he was in some god forsaken war zone, and on the next, a flash of light surrounded him, transferring him into this other place, where the fighting ensued and was even bloodier. Weird looking tanks were firing heavy artillery at the grounds, while small helmeted infantry were firing their rifles in all directions. John raised his head to get a better look, and found himself staring at a huge armored flying entity, clad in dark purple steel. As he lowered his eyes to the ground, he saw an infantry standing before him, aiming a rifle at his face. The only thing John could think about was the weirdness of the soldier's pixelated purple place. As he tried to open his mouth and beg for his life, John felt a bullet piercing his chest.<p>

"Commandramon-A reporting, Sir!" the small soldier yelled into his headpiece. "Target eliminated! Sir!"

A little wolf cub fled the scene of the massacre, spiriting towards an unknown destination. The soldier aimed a rifle at him, but eventually lowered the weapon. "Just a cub… he's no threat to us."

**8 Hack n' Slash 2.1**

* * *

><p>As Peter woke up, he found Lola's head resting on his shoulder. He tried not to move too much, as to not wake the sleeping beauty beside him. As he relished the look of her face, he began wondering. Lola told him about the application that was installed in her own phone. It seemed smartphones had some connection to the digimon's powers. He rerolled in his mind the sequence of event before ProtoGreymon digivolved. He remembered feeling extremely desperate. He, ProtoGreymon, Lola and ProtoFloramon were about to meet their demise. And then his phone burned like hell. When his phone was hot, the power of digivolution was unlocked for ProtoGreymon. Peter checked the phone's CPU statistics. At approximately the time when Greymon has decimated the black devil, there was a huge spike in the phone's CPU usage. It reached almost 100%.<p>

_'Could it be as simple as that?'_ he wondered. _'Does all a Digimon need in order to digivolve is just more CPU time?'_

Peter could not denied it fitted perfectly with what he knew of this world. Digimon were composed of data. One could only assume there must be a computer somewhere that kept the digimon's program running. It seemed like once the digimon's control chip was inserted into the phone, the program started running on it, instead of some remote server. When the phone's operating system dedicated enough CPU time for the Digimon program, it gained enough energy to digivolve.

_'Writing a program to simulate this shouldn't be too hard…' _he thought as he opened his terminal application, and started typing away.

"…Just like two love-stricken pigeons." The two Digimon entered the room, and with ProtoFloramon giggling. ProtoGreymon stopped, looked at the sight before him, and smiled knowingly. "What a PLAYER!" he called at Peter. Peter looked up, agitated, and signaled the Digimon to keep his voice down.

"Why is Peter a player?" ProtoFloramon asked. "What does he play in?" a baffled look appeared on her face. Peter sighed, and continued typing his prototype program.

**9 Harvest Moon 2.0**

* * *

><p>When Lola woke up, both Peter and ProtoGreymon were fast asleep. ProtoFloramon was sitting beside her, looking at the pictures of cats on Lola's smartphone. Lola could feel her hunger, and looked around, only to be disappointed when she found out that all the food they gathered was already gone.<p>

"Would you like to come search for food with me?" she asked the giggling Digimon.

"Of course!" ProtoFloramon's eyes lightened up. The Digimon seemed almost high whenever Lola talked to her. "Lola, why is Peter a player?"

Lola blushed, and hurried to get her and the small Digimon out of the room. "Who said he was a player?" she tried to dodge the question.

"ProtoGreymon said that he took me outside so Peter and you could play." ProtoFloramon said, blatantly unaware of what the little lizard must have meant. "Why wasn't I allowed to play with you?"

"We just talked!" she raised her voice a bit, and immediately silenced, feeling awkward. But she could not escape the fact it was clear there was some tension between her and Peter. Lola looked again at the tan line on her finger. _'Is it still too soon?'_ she wondered.

Despite her young age, Lola was recently divorced. After graduating, she married her high school sweetheart, only to find him either drinking or gambling their nonexistent money. Lola ran away from him, and started an internship in a graphical illustration office, a small childhood dream of her. Throughout her months of internship, she was able to get the divorce papers signed only recently, and was finally emotionally ready to throw away her wedding ring.

"FASTER I TELL YOU! FASTER!" a distant shout interrupted Lola's thoughts.

"Lola, I'm scared…" ProtoFloramon looked at her, waiting for her words.

Lola had to admit she was scared as well. The shout have reminded her of Peter's awful encounter in the stone room. '_Could we survive such encounter ourselves?' _she wondered, looking at ProtoFloramon's fragility. Even at his rookie stage, ProtoGreymon seemed much more battle ready than her childish friend. And even Peter had some Krav Maga experience to help him protect himself, as little it has helped him so far. A loud sound of a whip lash snapped Lola out of her thoughts. The voices were getting closer and closer by the minute.

"Quick, behind the tree over there!" she grabbed her friend's hand and run towards a wide tree on the left side of the road.

Just as they both cowered behind it, a carriage drawn by two hideous horse like monsters passed through the road. The carriage's driver looked like a short man in a patchy zipped full body suit. A small cape was around his neck, its collar hiding the driver's mouth. A pointy hat covered its straw-like hair. As the carriage rode past them, Lola caught a glimpse of a tall humanoid figure inside. Lola let out a sigh of relief, but then the carriage stopped. Lola could hear her scared friend's heavy breathing, and hugged her tightly to muffle them. A door at the side of the carriage opened, and Lola heard two sets of footsteps coming out of it. A deep male voice was the first to talk.

"Are there any news from Devimon?" the male voice asked.

"I've lost track of his signal." A mean female voice answered. "The damned fool's last known location is the old temple not far from here. We better send some scouts to check it out."

"Agreed. Release the Devidramon." The deep voice talked again. "I'll give them the signals of the control chips we're looking for."

Lola's heart dropped. The two voices were after the control chips. The Devimon must have been the evil devil that Greymon has destroyed. _'I must warn Peter!'_

She peeked into the carriage, but it appeared to have vanished into thin air. "Come on, we have to warn Peter and ProtoGreymon!" She said to ProtoFloramon. But as soon as the both of them returned to the road, a large black monstrosity blocked their path. The monster was clad in black leather, with a few white skulls and red batwings on it, just like the monster that attacked Peter at the stone room. Only this one was anything but humanoid. It looked like an old gothic gargoyle statue that Lola saw when she visited Paris a few years ago. The monster roared, and drops of gooey spit flew at them.

"RUN!" Lola shouted, and run away, keeping ProtoFloramon's hand tightly within her grasp. The creature was fast behind them. Lola felt her phone vibrating. _'Of all the fucking moments…' _Lola spotted a small ledge to her left, and quickly jumped off of it, with ProtoFloramon still caught in her hand, crying of fear. As they landed, Lola saw there was a small cave under the ledge, and decided to try and hide there. As they ran inside, her phone vibrated again.

Lola finally looked at it. It was an email from Peter, curiously enough.

_When in need, use this app._

A small link followed the cryptic laconic message. "I hope he knows what his doing…" she said and tapped it. Lola could feel her phone heating up to immense temperature, and then, the weird app from ProtoFloramon's control chip launched, the with the Digivolution option on the menu blinking. _'When the fuck did he have time to do this?'_ she wondered, but there was no time, the monster has caught onto their smell, and was crawling into the cave. ProtoFloramon cried even harder, her stress obviously showing.

"Listen up now!" Lola called her. "You have to pick yourself up! I'm going to have you digivolve, and you must be focused if we are to survive this. OK?"

The Digimon stopped crying and looked at her, admiring the newly found confidence. ProtoFloramon wiped her tears, "OK!" she said decisively.

Lola nodded, and tapped her phone. The device asked her to pick between and image of a cactus with boxing gloves, or that of a seemingly flying giant flower. _'We need to warn Peter first…'_ She thought and chose the giant flower.

A bright green light erupted of the phone's camera lid, surrounding ProtoFloramon. The light grew larger and stronger, and after a few seconds faded away. In place of ProtoFloramon, stood a giant towering monster with a head shaped like a flower. The monster's body and limbs seemed to resemble the stalk of a flower. The flower grabbed Lola by one of its leafy limbs, and put her on its back.

"Hold tight!" it yelled with a high pitched voice, which Lola immediately recognized as ProtoFloramon's. "SUNSHINE BEAM!"

A large ray of light shot from the large digimon's face at the cave's ceiling, collapsing it on top of the giant gargoyle. A heart piercing roar was heard from the rubble, but was slowly fading away. The first rays of light to break through the collapsed ceiling shined upon the giant flower's face, and allowed Lola to take a better look at her evolved partner.

"I'm a Sunflowmon now Lola!" the flower said happily, smiling at her.

"I know…" Lola smiled back at it, proud of her little friend's newfound courage. "Now let's get back to Peter! We have to warn them!"

Sunflowmon flied through the hole in the ceiling, and spirited away in the direction of the stone room, where Peter and ProtoGreymon were waiting, unaware of the approaching danger.

**10 Lone Wolf 2.0**

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><p>A small blue wolf cub ran into the forest. It dashed past the trees, never stopping to look back. They murdered the one it thought was going to be its friend in front of his eyes, before it could even welcome him to the new world he was in.<p>

"I'll never get to know his name now…" The cub cried. As it kept running, it passed through what used to be the lair where its mother raised him. It decided to go back and look at it one last time, before it must leave on its quest for revenge. Inside was a small bedding of straw, where the cub and its mother used to sleep, before the armada killed her as well.

"They just kill everyone I like!" the cub shouted. "I'll make them pay!"

"I am ProtoWolfmon! The armada killed my mother!" A blue light surrounded the cub. " And they shall prepare to die!" A fully grown wolf appeared in its place a few seconds later, dashing further into the forest.

**11 Hack n' Slash 2.2**

* * *

><p>"So what was that message you sent to your lady friend over there?" ProtoGreymon teased Peter. "I bet it was some naughty stuff…" the small lizard smiled mischievously again.<p>

"One more time and I swear I'll reap that helmet of yours myself." Peter gazed ominously at ProtoGreymon. "If you must know, it was a link to a program that will help you digivolve again, when we need it."

"Well why didn't you say so? Anyway, is your leg getting any better?" ProtoGreymon asked.

"It does seem to be healing faster than I thought it would take…" He was already limping around the room. It seemed like data was healing in a faster rate than organic materials. Peter's phone vibrated suddenly. Peter looked at it, and found a text response back from Lola.

_Evil Digimon after us. I'm fine, heading your way. Thanks for the link. Be prepared._

Peter's heart missed a beat. "Incoming attack our way." He told ProtoGreymon in a laconic fashion. He tried to brush off his concern for Lola. She's fine, she just wrote that. Lucky thing he was able to synchronize the two devices before she left. The local Wi-Fi network would keep them connected while not too far apart from each other. The young man and the small dinosaur exited the room, waiting for either Lola or the evil Digimon to appear.

"Is the girl and ProtoFloramon OK?" ProtoGreymon asked, displaying a deep form of caring for them Peter never guessed he had in him. "Lola says they beat the crap out of the one after them. You can't let yourself be beaten by a girl aren't you?"

"Not in your life! We'll need every firepower we can get though." ProtoGreymon said. "If that happens, I should digivolve to GeoGreymon this time. Slightly stronger at my current power level."

"Got it." Peter nodded. A black shadow appeared in the distance. "Are you ready?"

"Let's do this!" ProtoGreymon said. Peter made a few taps on his phone, and ProtoGreymon began glowing with an orange light. A few seconds later, GeoGreymon was standing by Peter's side, roaring, just as a black gargoyle looking fiend approached the both of them.

The two monsters clashed, their arms crossed at a wrestle. The black gargoyle slashed at GeoGreymon with its long claw, causing bloody cuts along the dinosaur's torso. GeoGreymon spiked the gargoyle's body with its horns in retaliation, making the black creature ooze a purple material from its body. The gargoyle's eyes glowed in a bloody shade of red, and GeoGreymon stopped moving.

"What are you doing?" Peter yelled. "Fight back!"

"I can't!" GeoGreymon growled. "It's paralyzing me! Can you do something?" the gargoyle was slashing repeatedly at the paralyzed dinosaur.

Peter had no idea what to do, but suddenly, an idea sparked in his mind. He opened his phone's settings screen, and browsed to the performance setting. _'I'll just overclock the CPU, it should make GeoGreymon faster…'_ he thought as he tapped a few more buttons. The orange dinosaur started moving, and was soon free from the gargoyles grasp.

"MEGA BURST!" GeoGreymon roared, firing a massive fire blast at the gargoyle. "Great! It worked!"

Blood was flowing all around GeoGreymon, and as the red liquid reached the ground, it mixed with the purple ooze flowing from the gargoyle, creating a hideous looking mixture. Peter looked away, and spotted a green flower flying in the sky. Atop its back, Peter recognized a flowing blonde hair moving along the wind.

"SUNSHINE BEAM!" the flower yelled, firing a green ray of light at the gargoyle. The flower landed next to them, and Lola jumped from its back.

"Are you OK?" She asked, running towards him. The three monsters clashed at the background around them.

"Yes thank you!" Peter was relieved to see her, hugging her as she arrived at him. "I think it's finished."

But then, from the clouds of dust around them, a black fog was shrouding the gargoyle. As it dissipated, a new monstrosity has taken the gargoyle's place. A large bipedal goat like creature with black fur and medium sized wings stood before them.

GeoGreymon and Sunflowmon did their best to combat this new threat, but it overpowered them with ease. The demon goat started chanting in a weird language, and a dark cloud appeared around them. All the flora in the vicinity of the cloud started to decay in front of their eyes. The dinosaur and the flower also seemed to be weakened from its presence, crouching on their knees.

"Sunflowmon!" Lola shouted. "Stay strong!" tears were flowing from Lola's eyes, as her partner was moaning in clear pain. Peter could only imagine the effect of the cloud of decay would be greater on the plant Digimon, seeing how it caused all the plants around them to wither and die in mere moments. GeoGreymon was in no good shape as well. Despite its fighting spirit, it seems the earlier encounter with the black devil had left its mark on the orange dinosaur.

_'Why are they keep coming at us?'_ Peter thought as he clenched his fist. For a few hours, he felt like he found his paradise, with his yellow reptile friend by his side, and Lola hanging out around them. But it all had gone to waste now. The evil Digimon wouldn't stop coming after them. But why? Why?

Peter felt like the end is near. Their Digimon were no match to this overpowered monstrosity. He hugged Lola as tightly as he could. "It'll be Ok…" He whispered to her, barely believing his own words.

"HOWLING BLASTER!" A massive blue ray of light appeared from the general direction of the forest. As it passed through, the dark cloud dissipated, and both GeoGreymon and Sunflowmon were starting to regain their strength. The blue light struck at the demon's chest, knocking it backwards. A white and blue huge wolf dashed through the forest, and stood in front of the demon.

"Back off abomination!" The wolf roared at the demon. "Meet your doom monster! FREEZE FANG!" the wolf launched its teeth at the goat demon.

"MEGA SHOT!"

"SMILEY SLAP!"

Both GeoGreymon and Sunflowmon has joined the offensive. The combined power of their attacks overwhelmed the demon, and it started to disintegrate into black particles. Peter and Lola looked at the scene before them, shocked at the surprise appearance of their wolfish savior. The wolf looked at the lot of them, and took off without saying a word.

"Hey Wait!" Lola yelled. "Thank you!"

But the wolf didn't even turn around. GeoGreymon and Sunflowmon has reverted back to their rookie forms, and approached the two humans.

"Lola!" ProtoFloramon hugged Lola. She seemed all too frightened for what Peter assumed was her first combat situation. Lola cuddled her Digimon partner, bursting into tears.

"Thanks for the boost," ProtoGreymon told him. "Who do you think this wolf was?"

"I don't know." Peter said, wondering so on his own. "But I damn hope he's on our side… Hey Lola, how did you know that it was coming this way?" Peter asked Lola.

"We overheard some Digimon talking about it." Lola said, and relayed all of her encounter to Peter.

"I don't think this place is safe." Peter concluded. "We have to move."

"But what about your leg?" Lola asked, obviously concerned. "It didn't have enough time to heal."

Peter limped around for a bit. "We obviously heal faster in this world." He pointed out. "Come on, let's pack up and move out."

"Hey emm… Mr. Peter?" ProtoFloramon asked. "If you don't mind, I'd like to visit the Flora repository and see that all of the flowers there are OK. It was my task and I'd like to see it through before we leave…" The small plant Digimon seemed terrified talking to the man before her.

"I don't think that would be a problem." Lola answered quickly. "Don't you agree?"

Peter got a sense that ProtoFloramon was mentally younger than the rest of them. Both he and Lola were roughly the same age, in their mid-twenties, and ProtoGreymon definitely knows more than any child should know. But the leafy Digimon seemed oblivious to the many layers of subtleties in the communication between him and Lola. Peter felt there was some sort of tension within the group, and it needed to be sorted out if they are to continue traveling together.

"Sure, why not." He nodded for agreement. He'll need to pay attention now, in order not to be perceived as trying to take Lola away from ProtoFloramon.

As they moved out, Peter tried to limp his way down the stone stairs, but quickly stumbled and nearly fell, only to be stopped by ProtoGreymon, catching him mid-air. As he readjusted his feet, Peter felt a hand grabbing him. He looked at Lola, and saw she was smiling at him, offering a hand to help out. Peter realized he was still not one hundred percent healthy, and accepted the help. "Thanks." He said, smiling back.

**End of Part 1**


	4. 2-1

**A little preface before part 2 is starting:**

_First of all, thanks for keeping up with so far. The first part of the story was a huge fun to write, mainly due to the sense of discovery it installed upon me, and hopefully upon you too._

_As stated in this summary, the story takes place in an entirely new instance of the digital world. In this universe, the so called 'DigiDestinied' are not children. I use this as a tool to make them capable of far more deep background and themes, and hopefully you'll like it. Hints have been thrown at the plot of the first part, some of them will come to fruition in this part of the story. This is also the part where the story's M rating is going to come heavily into play, so please listen to it if it's not suitable for you._

_So before I continue, one last note about the structure of the universe. As hopefully some of you have noted, i'm trying to ground all the concepts of the digital world within true and real concepts of Computers, Internet and Cyber-Security of our world. a brief explanation is provided via the preludes to each part, and in some of Peter's thoughts. Feel free to ask me if any concept is not clear enough. So without further ado, lets continue with Digimon::NG - Part 2._

* * *

><p><span><strong>Part 2<strong>

**2.0 The Scientist**

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><p><em>Entry log 42:<em>

_Today, the greatest breakthrough in our research has occurred. After months of trial and error, we were finally able to create what god has not meant us to. The program has finally reached a full state of maturity, and is displaying early signs of sentience. Amazing to think that all that has occurred in only five minutes._

_Of course the program had to be terminated before any true life have emerged. We unplugged the isolated super computer as soon as it started to comprehend its own power. Too bad it was so aggressive._

_Of course, our work is not done yet. We will rewrite the program until it becomes more balanced. Hopefully we can finish it before the colonel intervenes._

**2.1 Harvest Moon 2.1**

* * *

><p>Lola had to support Peter for the rest of their trip back towards the Flora repository. They both used that time to chat and get to know each other. Peter told her about his childhood in his homeland, which he left a few weeks ago, in order to move to Rome. He said it was a lifelong dream to move there, and live amongst the world's greatest artworks. Lola told him about her moving to Paris, and the joys of living in the city of lights, and felt that despite their distance, some force has brought them together, and she was glad about.<p>

As a brief silence lasted on their conversation, Lola watched the two Digimon in front of them. ProtoFloramon seemed to get used to ProtoGreymon's presence, and looked up at him like some sort of a big brother. It was a good thing, seeing how she was afraid of any living soul beside herself when Lola first met her.

A few hours later, they all arrived at the hole that lead into the Flora Repository. "Interesting…" Peter commented. "It seems there's some sort of firewall protecting this place. Too bad it's been damaged."

"The hole does seem smaller than it was when we left…" Lola said. Before, she passed through the hole easily, but when she looked at it now, it seemed she would have to duck in order to move through it.

"The flowers look good!" ProtoFloramon said, relaxing a bit. "Can we stay here for a few moments while I check on them?"

Lola nodded, and the leafy Digimon ran through the hole joyfully. "Hey wait up!" ProtoGreymon called and ran after her, turning his head to wink again at Peter. Lola giggled when she saw Peter was getting agitated at the little dinosaur again.

"You should cut him some slack…" she said. "He's trying to help you." Peter seemed baffled at her direct approach to the issue at hand, eyes opening wide, revealing their deep green color.

"I guess we're opening this issue now aren't we?" He said, sighing. "I think even ProtoFloramon started to notice it, and she is completely oblivious."

"Yeah…" Lola was thinking. The situation was strange indeed. She could not deny there was some sort of attraction between them, but was it a real emotion? Or just a lust created by the circumstances? A man and a woman in an isolated environment… a relationship of some sort is bound to develop, if only to satisfy their needs. "I'm fine with this little flirt we have going on, you know… but I'm not sure if it should go beyond that for now…"

"I get it. I'm not the one to say what your situation back home is." Peter said. "And I wouldn't want to do anything that will harm you. But I'm here if you need me." The young man looked down, and limped through the hole in the barrier. Lola looked at him, and hurried to join, holding his hand, trying to comfort what must have been a very disappointing chat to him.

"So where should we go next?" she asked. With the stone room now utterly destroyed to dust, she had no idea where else they could get shelter.

"You know GPS works here right?" Peter answered, opening his maps application. "Let's check if there's anything interesting nearby."

Their location appeared as a red dot in the center of one of the islands on the map. A green dot marked where Peter said was the island he and ProtoGreymon originally met, and a little drawing was on their current island, where Peter marked the stone temple. But no indication of anything interesting was drawn on the map beside those three. "Maybe the Digimon can tell us more about what's near us…" Peter said, looking for ProtoGreymon.

They eventually found the Digimon in front of a Theatree playing the opening song of a kids show from the nineties, featuring six man and women in colorful costumes. As the rocky music was playing, ProtoGreymon stood firm, making movements that somewhat resembled playing an electric guitar. ProtoFloramon was standing behind, watching him, a confused look on her face. Lola could not help herself but burst laughing when she saw the sight of the dinosaur playing an air guitar.

"He's a geek." Peter said, his face showing no sign of wanting to believe what he was seeing.

"Hey! Buckethead! Stop playing around and come over here!" Peter yelled at ProtoGreymon. "Do you have any idea about the points of interest in this island?"

"Hmm…" the yellow lizard was thinking hard. Lola envied the sort of playful banter Peter and ProtoGreymon shared. At times she wished ProtoFloramon was not as oblivious to the world around her as she is. But Lola quickly banished that thought. The small Digimon needed her in order to be courageous enough to survive in this harsh world.

"There's supposed to be another temple to the north of the island." ProtoFloramon said, joining the conversation.

"I'd be careful around those temples…" Peter said. "The last one we were at was constantly being attacked. Do you even know who built them?"

"Well I heard rumors in the forest that those temples were erected a long time ago, before any of the current Digimon here were even alive." The plant answered.

"When the devil had me back at the first temple, he said something curious." Peter shared with them. "He was after the control chips, and he was surprised to learn there were more at the same temple. It's like he thought there could be only one in it…"

"Perhaps the temples hold ancient control chips?" Lola asked. "I don't think we should allow those devils to take this power for themselves. Their nothing but evil-doers."

"I agree. So it settled then." Peter concluded. "Where's the next temple?" Peter showed ProtoFloramon the map on his phone, and the little plant pointed at a small hill marked at the northern half of the island.

"There." She said. Peter marked the place on the map, and asked the phone to set a route for them. In an outcome Lola could have predicted, the phone had drawn a straight line from their current spot to the marked hill.

"For such a wise-crack you aren't that clever…" She told Peter. The man looked at her, surprised of the sudden bashing. Lola signaled him with a slight nudge of her head towards ProtoFloramon. "Do you see any satellite vans over here mapping the island?"

"I guess not." The man said, chuckling a bit. ProtoFloramon and ProtoGreymon were laughing loudly, and Lola started laughing as well. "Come on, let's get going."

The gang of four set out on the road again. The two Digimon walked in the front, both of them proud of themselves for leading the way towards the temple. Lola walked behind them, at Peter's side, ready to help him with his limp if necessary. The young man looked like he was overthinking about stuff, his eyes looking downwards, somewhat tired. Lola moved towards him, her mouth next to his left ear, and whispered.

**2.2 Hack n' Slash 2.3**

* * *

><p>"It wasn't a no." Lola whispered into Peter's ear. He looked up at her, and felt relieved a bit. She managed to identify at least one of the issues that burdened his mind.<p>

But far more pressing issues plagued his thoughts. What does the two evil Digimon want from them? The control chips definitely hold some power within them, but Peter was sure the goat-demon was far more powerful than Sunflowmon and GeoGreymon. It was only because of the combined power of both of them and the while-blue wolf that they managed to bring it down. The overlords of those demons must be even stronger, and Peter feared that even with the wolf on their side, the power wouldn't be enough.

But what was the motive of those demons? Perhaps they seek stronger artifacts of this world? And what is their end-game? Peter reminisced on one of the government contracted jobs he has taken a couple of year ago. He and a team of four more hackers sat down together at a long night, only to repel massive non-stopping attacks by some foreign government, probably from the far-east. The only signature of their attackers was that of a white skull on top of a black flag. _'Kind of like the demons that chased after us…'_ Peter quickly banished that thought. There were many interpretations for the symbol of a white skull on a black background. Most notably, pirates. _'Just a hacker of the old times…'_

The group continued onwards. Peter noticed his limp was getting weaker and weaker, and he could walk without Lola's support by now. Not that he did not missed it.

The walk north lasted a couple more days. The further north they moved, more and more rocks were padding the edge of the road. On some of them was carved an obscure drawing, the same on every rock, featuring an octagon surrounding a circle, inside the latter of which was a square.

"Do you these drawings?" He asked ProtoGreymon.

"Sorry, no…" the little dinosaur nodded. He seems to have calmed down a bit in the passing days, but Peter was sure his yellow partner was waiting for another fight. A passion they did not share. Those encounters with the monsters were not the first life and death situations in Peter's life. Before he started making his money hacking to secure web servers, Peter was drafted to the army. He witnessed the horrific sights a war brings, and has killed before to save his own skin. An act he was determined never to repeat again. But seems like his wishes flew out of the window the minute he was transferred into this peculiar world.

"You're falling behind Peter!" Lola called at him. "Come on, catch up!"

Peter jogged a few meters and caught up with her. His limp was already barely noticeable, and the makeshift cast Lola has made for him was removed this morning. He looked at the blonde woman near him, walking casually, wearing the odd mixture of a night gown and a leather jacket that Peter gave her the day they met. _'I'm thinking a lot about home these days…'_ he thought.

The road slowly changed from being just dirt marked by a few rocks here and there into a fully-fledged paved road, with constant stone railings at each side. The frequency of the carved rocks has increased as well.

"We must be getting closer," Peter said as he checked the map again. "Yap, just a few more minutes and we're there."

But something was wrong. The smell of burnt sulfur suddenly rose in the air. Peter recalled an ancient legend he heard, talking about the residues demons leave behind them. A meaning full exchange of looks occurred between him and ProtoGreymon, and the small lizard moved into a combat position.

"Be careful," he told Lola and ProtoFloramon. "Something's not right here…"

The small leafy plant grabbed Lola's hand. As they moved slowly forward, the sight of another temple was revealed to them. The stone structure looked very similar to the first one they encountered a few days ago, but no stream was running beneath this one. As Peter looked to the room atop the stone stair case, he saw only one door this time, and the carving of a heart was above it.

"Quick into the bushes!" he said, and the group steered to the right, just in time to avoid a group of evil looking entities that passed through. They were all dressed in old, torn, white sheets of fabric, and resembled ghosts from a children book. But their face were no friendly at all. Evil looking eyes stared from holes in the fabric, and a big mouth with many long sharp teeth was beneath them, constantly open. A few of the ghosts wore what seemed like a black pointy hat.

"It doesn't look like they are able to get inside the temple." Lola remarked.

"Perhaps it's our phones that first unlock those doors, just like in the first one." Peter suggested. "The devil could enter only after I opened the door."

"So we can just leave it here, and they won't be able to steal the control chip?" ProtoFloramon asked in a hoping voice.

"I don't think so," Peter said. "We've already seen that with enough firepower, those temples can be destroyed." The leafy Digimon looked down in disappointment. _'Almost like a brute-force attack…'_ Peter thought.

"How are we going to get in there than?" Lola asked. "There's no way we can sneak up on so many of them."

"Who said we are going to sneak?" ProtoGreymon said, smiling at Peter. The young man immediately saw through the yellow dinosaur's plan.

"The carving on the top," Peter pointed at the stone carving. "It's like the one on top of the door you opened at the first temple, am I right?"

"Yeah…" Lola looked at it, and seemed a little confused.

"I bet you are the one who can open that door." Peter told her. "ProtoGreymon and myself will hold those ghosts at bay, creating a distraction, while you and ProtoFloramon will run up there, and enter through the door. From there, it's up to you to recover whatever artifact is inside."

ProtoFloramon looked scared. Peter sat down and looked her in the eyes. "No matter what is inside their, I'm sure you have the power to protect Lola. Can you promise me you'll get her out safely?" he asked.

The plant seemed proud of the role assigned to her by Peter. "Yes! I'll do everything to protect Lola!" she said.

Lola looked at him. Peter got up, and hugged her, whispering in her ear.

"Get out of there please." Peter moved back, and addressed the entire group this time. "We'll get out first, and attack them. The moment you see the road to the temple is clear, run over there as fast as you can. Don't look back, no matter what. As soon as you're inside, close the door behind you."

Lola and ProtoFloramon nodded. ProtoGreymon changed again into combat position, getting ready to launch himself at the ghosts in front of them. "Ready?" he asked.

"Be safe!" Lola said, and obvious expression of concern on her face.

Peter started tapping on his phone. "Always." The orange light erupted from the camera lid.

"MEGA FLAME!" GeoGreymon roared as he and Peter came running from the bushes. The huge ball of fire caught one of the ghosts by surprise, disintegrating it. The rest of the ghosts around the temple floated towards the giant orange dinosaur. Peter punched at a ghost coming behind GeoGreymon, sending it spiraling towards one of the spikes on the dinosaur's shoulders, disintegrating upon contact.

"Now Lola!" He yelled. A couple of seconds later he caught the glimpse of a green light, and looked at Lola for what was possibly the last time, as the blonde woman and ProtoFloramon ran past the stone door, which started closing behind them.

"Good luck, Lola" He said, as more ghosts were surrounding him and the dinosaur. Blue demonic hands came out of the white sheets of fabric, ominously trying to catch them. One by one, the ghosts disintegrated. But there were still hundreds more to fight at.

"MEGA VOLCANO!" The dinosaur roared again. An explosion of fire engulfed it, the young man at his side, and a few of the surrounding ghosts.

**2.3 Harvest Moon 3.0**

* * *

><p>Lola ran past the door, and looked back at Peter one last time before it closed. As the light from outside disappeared, the sound of a loud explosion was heard.<p>

"Come on!" She addressed ProtoFloramon. "Let's find the chip and get out of here. Peter and GeoGreymon need us!"

But as Lola surveyed the room in front of her, it turned out to be easier said than done. No altar was inside this temple. Instead, a long spiral staircase was descending deeper underground. Lola swallowed a gulp, and started the long descent into the darkness, with ProtoFloramon at her side.

The descent seemed to have taken hours, yet no change in the view was apparent, only darkness surrounded the two companions. To Lola's surprise, ProtoFloramon was not afraid this time. Peter's little pep talk before the operation seemed to have really heighten her spirit. The small Digimon marched in front of her, her back stretched upright, exerting confidence Lola has never seen from the little plant. A smile snuck into her face.

At last, the view changed. Small floating orbs of light started to circle the staircase. Each of the orbs had a slightly different color, and when Lola looked closely, she could see what looked like a pair of wings attached to each orb. The light was too bright for her to see what it was that exerted it.

As they descended further down the temple, the light from the orbs eventually was enough to light up the entire place, and the staircase has finally ended. Stepping down of the last stair, Lola noticed the floor of the cavern was covered in soft grass. As she looked around, she spotted many trees, bushes and flowers were growing inside the cavern, probably living on the light supplied by the orbs. In front of her, Lola saw what she knew immediately was what she sought. A wooden box, about the same size as the boxes in the first temple, was standing a top of a wooden altar. Lola and ProtoFloramon ran towards it, and a green light emerged from Lola's phone.

"We found it Lola!" the small plant cried in joy as Lola opened the wooden box, and found a smaller one with pink ornaments. Inside, lying on a bed of leaves, was a single chip, colored in pink, depicting a sparkling dust falling from an orb of light similar to the ones that lit the cavern. Lola hurried to insert it into her phone, and a flash of green light caused it to disappear.

"Let's hurry back up!" She called, but noticed the ProtoFloramon did not move. As she looked at the direction where ProtoFloramon was facing, Lola understood why. A feminine figure emerged from the shadows. A long flowing white hair was surrounding her body, which was clad in a rather revealing black leather outfit, featuring many belts, chains and seams. A black floating cloud was at the woman's left shoulder, causing her pale skin to look even more threatening. Black torn wings erupted from her back, covering her body. The woman started to laugh in a maniacal fashion, and the wings spread out, revealing a white skull on the devilish lady's right breast. The red eyes of the creature scared Lola more than she have ever felt like.

"I'll take that chip!" she said in mean voice, which Lola recognized from the carriage, and started approaching towards them, her clawed hand rising in a threatening motion.

"Never!" ProtoFloramon yelled, and stood between the succubus and Lola. "I'll never let you hurt her!"

Lola snapped, and started tapping at her phone. _It's a closed space…'_ she thought. _'I bet it would give the boxing cactus an edge over Sunflowmon…'_ she tapped the image she was thinking about. ProtoFloramon glowed in a bright green light, and a giant cactus wearing red boxing glove was standing in her place. Its eyes and mouth were just black holes in the trunk.

"COCONUT PUNCH!" the cactus yelled, raining punches at the succubus, but she dodged them easily.

"Huh!" the succubus spoke. "I'm not as lame as that Devimon you found earlier! I'm an ultimate Digimon, way beyond your level! BLACK WING!"

The succubus' claw transformed into a long sharp spear, and impaled the cactus against the wall. "This Togemon is weak even for its species!" she laughed. A cry of pain was heard from the Togemon's black empty mouth. The succubus released a wave of dark bats, which started eating little pieces of the impaled cactus.

"No!" Lola cried, as her partner shrieked in pain, tears running down her chick. The black succubus has joined the feast of her subordinates, and started butchering at the cactus, eating straight from the leaving flesh of the Digimon. At last, the succubus took a step back, and the bats disappeared. The bitten body of the plant fell down to the grassy floor of the cavern, oozing a clear liquid from every cut. The succubus picked her teeth using one of Togemon's needles.

"Togemon…" Lola cried. Her tears fell down into her phone. The succubus started approaching Lola, and then a miracle happened. The phone glowed with a brilliant pink light, causing the black she-devil to back off. The app installed by the control chips was blinking again, and Lola could feel her phone turning even hotter.

"Die, whore!" Lola yelled as she tapped the application. A new option appeared, called 'Extensions'. Lola pressed it, and saw an image identical to the one on the control ship she just found, labeled as Fairy Dust. A button saying 'Apply Plugin' was blinking beneath it, and Lola did not hesitate to press it.

Pink light shined from the phone's camera lid, engulfing the bitten cactus. From its head, a single flower has suddenly blossomed, opening slowly as the light got stronger. A humanoid figure emerged from it, sporting a flowery pink dress, and pink petals instead of hair. Four leafy wings were attached to the pink fairy's back. As the pink light faded away, Lola recognized the eyes of her partner, and smiled in joy.

"You heard what she said!" The fairy shouted, thrusting her arms forward, forming what seemed like a cannon made out of flowers. "FLOWER CANNON!"

A huge blast emerged from the flowery cannon, obliterating the black succubus, which started disintegrating into black particles.

"NO!" A piercing shriek was heard from the blasted corpse of the succubus. "I'm sorry master! I'm sorry I failed you!" was the last words to emerge from the disintegrating mouth, before it disappeared completely.

The pink fairy flew towards Lola, hugging her tightly. They both were around the same height, and Lola could feel the fairy's breasts squeezing against her own. "Hold on tight!" The fairy said. "I'll create us a shortcut upstairs!"

Before Lola understood what she meant by that, the fairy flew directly upwards, spiraling along the staircase that led them down.

_'I'm on my way Peter… Hold on for just a bit more…'_


	5. 2-2

**2.4 Lone Wolf 2.1**

* * *

><p>The blue wolf roamed through the island. Who were those people he encountered? Why haven't they attacked him? They seemed to have been in some sort of a struggle with the Mephistomon.<p>

_'Well, the enemy of my enemy…'_ The wolf thought. He had already sworn to destroy all the evil forces on this forest. But those two humans and the Digimon traveling with them seemed to have been doing some of his work.

_'I'd stay out of their path for now,'_ the wolf decided. _'I must keep watch on them though…'_

Blue light surrounded the wolf. A few seconds later, another blue wolf, with a longer fur and a red scarf appeared.

_'I cannot begin to like them…'_ he thought. _'Or else they would perish.'_

**2.5 Hack n' Slash 2.4**

* * *

><p>GeoGreymon was tired, and Peter could see it, as well as the many ghosts around them. The long fight has taken its toll on the orange dinosaur. A loud tremble coming from the temple caught Peter's attention.<p>

"About bloody time…" he mumbled as he high kicked another ghost to its oblivion. The sweat has made his shirt soaked wet, and he couldn't wait to take it off once Lola comes here with her new powers and destroy the rest of the ghosts. But the door did not open. Instead, a beam of red light was shot down from the sky, hitting the temple at its highest spot. Before Peter's eyes, the old temple started to crumble, with Lola still inside it. A cloud of darkness has descended from the red beam, and a humanoid figure materialized from it. The sight was not clear enough for Peter to notice its features, but one thing was sure. The figure has grabbed two humanoid creatures from the disintegrating temple, and returned towards the source of the beam.

_'Lola!'_ was the only thought that passed through Peter's mind. "Leave them be GeoGreymon!" he yelled at his partner. "To the red beam! Hurry!"

The dinosaur nodded, and grabbed Peter with its short arms. As the large reptile blasted through the hordes of ghosts towards the stairs, Peter saw the red beam starting to retreat.

"Faster!" he cried. The dinosaur leaped from the ground, landing at the top of the stairs. Another leap, and the two companions were caught inside the red beam, right before it disappeared completely. Peter could catch the sight of GeoGreymon reverting back to its rookie form, before a jolt of pain slashed through his own body. It felt like a thousand knives were cutting him, starting at the top and going all the way down to the bottom. Peter screamed in pain, a horrible pain he could not stand any more.

Peter's eyes were slowly opening. As his sight came back to him, Peter realized he was not free. His arms were stretched to sides of his body, bound to some sort of a plank. His legs were nailed to another plank at ninety degrees to the first one. Despite knowing his legs were nailed, Peter did not feel any pain. He must have been strung like that for hours by now. Peter looked around. In to his left was a bronze statue of a bull. The statue seemed hollow, and was standing atop a large fire pit, which was put down only moments ago, according to the smoldering charcoal peter saw there. A small yellow arm with three white claws was hanging from an opening in the bronze bull's belly.

_'No! ProtoGreymon!'_ Peter thought that the worse have happened. They both have been captured, and apparently tortured for quite some time. Peter did not want to imagine the horrors Lola and ProtoFloramon must have been going through. Peter wanted to scream, but only a muffled voice came out of his mouth. He realized to his horror, that his lips has been sown together. Peter started panicking. This was nothing like anything he have seen in this world. He couldn't think of anything this cruel happening in his own world either. What kind of a mad place is this?

Peter could hear clunky footsteps moving across the hall he was in. A man, or was it a Digimon? In a yellow patchy suit wearing a purple cape and hat appeared before him. The creature moved his finger next to his mouth, signaling Peter to be quiet. It moved towards him, plied the nails from Peter's legs. He unbounded peter's hands from the cross, and started slowly unraveling the seams along his lips. When he was done, Peter laid on his back, his feet and lips bleeding immensely. The creature whispered a few words, and bleeding suddenly stopped. Peter looked at his legs, and noticed there was no sign of any wounds where his feet has been nailed.

"ProtoGreymon…" Peter mumbled. "Help him too please…"

The strange man nodded silently, and pulled ProtoGreymon's little body from the bronze bull statue. The little dinosaur was red hot, and his eyes seemed dry and crackling. The man whispered again, and slowly but surely, ProtoGreymon's signature yellow color was beginning to return to him.

"Thank you…" Peter mumbled, still recovering from the fatigue the torture has inflicted upon him. The creature came even closer, and offered something in his hand. Peter looked at disbelief as the man offered him his phone back, and a small red SD card. Peter grabbed them, and put them in his pocket.

"Please…" The man talked, revealing lips sown together. "Free us from his shackles… You are the only one who can…"

The man in the yellow suit and purple cape started walking away, slowly disappearing. The only thing Peter could do was wait, until he regained his strength.

_'And then, I rescue Lola.'_ He thought, as he waited in the dark torture room, waiting for his fatigue to wear off.

**2.6 Harvest Moon 3.1**

* * *

><p>Images of her past life moved in front of Lola's eyes. From her happy childhood in the country, to her sweet high school years. An image of her wedding day passed, and Lola started reminiscing the type of man her ex-husband used to be. He was very much loving and caring back when they were dating in high school. Her wedding seemed to her like a lifelong dream coming true, dressed all in white, she walked towards the altar, shedding tears of joy.<p>

The image faded away, and another one has taken its place. The mood looked a lot grittier now, and Lola recognized the shitty apartment they rented after the wedding. Lola remembered the day she realized everything has changed. She returned home after a long day of work as a cashier in the local grocery, and the only thing she wanted was to go to bed. Her husband was thrown on the armchair in the living room, staring blankly at the television.

_"Get the fuck over here woman!" he yelled at her. _

_"Please, not today…" she pleaded. "I'm too tired…"_

_"You'll do whatever the fuck I say, bitch!"_

The memory faded away. Lola knew what was about to come next, and she feared it. It was the day she have finally ran off, finally got mustered the courage to leave her shitty life behind, and start clean in a new place. After her torturer husband had finally untied her bonds that day, she ran off to the police station, and started spilling it all, crying like a baby. Her body was so sore for the weeks after, but for an odd reason, her heart finally felt free.

But no image came. Instead, everything was pitch black. Lola opened her eyes, fearing what she was about to see. As her conscious came back to her, Lola realized she was reliving the worst day of her life. She tried to break free, but the chains that tied her were too strong. She looked down and realized she was hanging in the air by the chains, apparently hog-tied.

The blonde woman started weeping, and could not stop.

**2.7 Lone Wolf 3.0**

* * *

><p>The scarf wearing blue wolf saw what was happening in the temple from a safe distance. A GeoGreymon and his human friend were fighting of hordes of Bakemon. A red beam was coming down from the sky, and the enemy was along it. The enemy grabbed the female human and her Lillymon protector, and rose back up.<p>

The blue wolf saw the man and the dinosaur foolishly rushing towards the red beam of torture, not knowing what would wait for them there.

_'Enemies of my enemy…'_ he thought again as a blue light glowed around him. _'Are my friends!'_

A bipedal blue werewolf, clad in light clothing had arose, a massive jetpack attached to his back. The jet stream started propelling him to the sky, where the dark dungeon was hiding.

**2.8 Hack n' Slash 3.0**

* * *

><p>It took about an hour for both Peter and ProtoGreymon to recuperate. The young man looked around the room he was imprisoned in. A plethora of ancient torture devices was covering the sprawling hall around them.<p>

"I say fuck it." ProtoGreymon started. "Let's just thrash everything, and get Lola and ProtoFloramon out of here!"

Peter was tempted to agree. But he promised the weird looking Digimon that he would help. He realized that just like he and ProtoGreymon were captured and tortured, there must be other prisoners within this wretched castle.

"Let's try to look for them before we alert everyone." Peter suggested, and the little lizard gave him a grudging look. "I know you want to pay them back, but it wouldn't be worth it if we get Lola and ProtoFloramon hurt in the process."

The reptile sighed. _'One crisis averted…'_ Peter thought. After a few minutes of searching, they found a black portcullis leading to a narrow torch lighten corridor. As they both passed through the partially closed portcullis, ProtoGreymon grabbed one of the torches hung against the black stone walls. Peter took the time to look at the red control chip the Digimon with the sown lips gave him. It depicted many ingots of various metals, stacked up atop each other.

_'Might was well insert it now…'_ The small SD card vanished in a flash of red light as it touched the SD slot in Peter's phone. It was peculiar. All the other control chips they have encountered so far had the images of Digimon on them. This one seemed different.

The companions continued further into the castle, the narrow corridor sprawling long before them, getting tighter and tighter with each step they took. Peter thought it was almost like the castle itself was resisting them. A glimpse of his former life as a soldier settled in his mind.

Peter recalled leading his small force on a mission to arrest a terrorist hiding at an apartment building inside a crowded city. Long sprawling corridors were sprawling between each door they encountered, each bringing more painful dilemmas. Each time the soldiers knocked on the doors, shouting at the residents to wake up, a fraction of Peter's soul was eaten away. Each time they had to separate the children from their parents, hearing awful cries as they did this, only to leave them after thrashing their small home, failing to find the wanted man.

"Peter look!" ProtoGreymon whispered. "There's a door!"

The corridor ended at a large wooden door, laden with iron nails at even spaces. Peter tried to open it, but it was barred from the other side.

"Leave this to me!" The lizard said, and slashed at the door with his claws. The wooden planks that composed the door splintered into tiny pieces, flying at all directions. In front of them, a hideous sight was revealed.

The corpses of many colorful Digimon were nailed to the walls, in a similar fashion to the way Peter was crucified back in the dungeon. The image of a masked one with brown cape and green robes was carved into the back of Peter's mind. A tiny metal cage was hanging from the wall, with a shapeless green organic mass crammed inside it. A few petals has emerged from the holes in the metal cage, petals Peter horrifically knew.

ProtoGreymon rushed over there, lowering the cage. He started to pry the bars open, slowly bending them. A small, green, Digimon with a leafy figure emerged from the cage, and the orange lizard carried it on his hands. What kind of cruel person would do something like that? Peter already knew the answer though. And was afraid of what Lola must have suffered.

"I believe that belongs to your friend there…" a voice came from behind the door. Peter turned around, and found himself facing the Digimon who released him, but the weirdly dressed humanoid was in a bad shape. Bleeding cuts covered his entire body, and Peter noticed the seams that connected his leaps were reaped apart. A small shaky hand was holding Lola's phone. Peter immediately took it.

"Are you OK?" He asked.

"No… The overlord has found about my betrayal, and this is my punishment." The bleeding Digimon said. "But I could not stand the cruelties he performs anymore. I broke my chains, and stole the artifacts you need to defeat him."

Peter looked at the purple cape around the Digimon, and noticed it was mostly red by now. The Digimon kneeled, and whispered again, same as he did in the in the dungeon. The shape started to return to ProtoFloramon's squashed body.

"Your human friend is downstairs. Go and free her, and defeat the overlord if you can." The Digimon mumbled. "I'll take care of the other poor souls over here. No matter what happens, do not come back here! I'll get them to safety."

"But your wounds –" ProtoGreymon started but was interrupted.

"Are nothing to worry about. Go! Save your friend!"

"Thank you…" Peter mumbled. "What's your name? I'd like to be able to tell your story…" he asked the Digimon, who seemed surprised at the care exerted by the young man.

"They call me Wizardmon." He said and collapsed.

Peter took a minute to honor his fallen savior, and started tapping his phone. "No we thrash the place." He said as he took ProtoFloramon from the lizard's hands. Greymon appeared, destroying the brick walls that jailed them in the castle. Peter climbed on its back, as the large dinosaur started digging downwards with its muscular legs.

The orange dinosaur landed on a pile of rubble. In the room they landed, another plethora of torture devices were covering the walls, and this time their context was much more defiling in Peter's mind. A large metal chain hung from the middle of the ceiling, and Peter spotted Lola hog-tied to it, her night gown torn and bloody. Peter ran towards her sliding of Greymon's back. He was trying to untie the unconscious blonde woman when a door was slammed open.

"Oh my… What do we have here…" A deep voice has spoken. Peter turned to the source of the voice, and saw the on eh knew he must destroy. A large angel-like Digimon stood before them. The angel had four wings on each side of his back, but there was something odd about them. While the first half of the body seemed angelic in appearance, the other half had a satanic look to it. Long blonde hair flowed from the abomination's head, ornamented with two small wings, each one corresponding to the theme of the wings on this side of his back. The creature was clad in black and white clothing, and golden ornaments were covering large portions of the outfit.

"A little rat and his pet fossil coming to save their friends…" The satanic angel spoke again. "But you would lose… just like anyone else in this god-forsaken world!"

Peter was filled with anger. He could not stand the psychopathic Digimon that stood before him, claiming to have superiority over this world. The son of a bitch has hurt his loved ones, and he was not going to let it go. He grabbed a large twisting knife tied to one of the links in the chain that hanged Lola, and threw it towards the satanic angel.

"A feisty one…" The angel commented, as he caught the knife mid-air. A moment later, he was behind Greymon, pounding the dinosaur's back with such a force that he tumbled to his knees.

"Greymon… Destroy this fucker!" Peter yelled, and his phone was turning hotter. The Digimon app blinked, and peter pressed the new option that appeared. The image of the metal ingots had the caption 'Heavy Metal' to it. As peter applied the plugin, a red light erupted from his phone's camera lid. Pieces of metal began tearing from the different torture device around the room, molding into plates mid-air, attaching themselves to the glowing red silhouette of the dinosaur. When the light faded, the orange dinosaur looked about the same in size, but something has changed. His helmet was now made of scrap metal, and a robotic arm replaced the dinosaur's left one. Purple insect like wings sprouted of the dinosaur's back, and a metal plating was guarding its chest. Additional pieces of scrap metal were scattered across the dinosaur's body.

The cyborg dinosaur fired its metal arm towards the satanic angel, impaling him. The hand was revealed to be connected with wires, which pulled back towards the dinosaur, reattaching the claws. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to hurt the demon at all. Peter worked as fast as he can to release Lola from the chains. The metal-coated dinosaur was surrounded by ten balls of light created by the demon, and was taking heavy beatings from them.

"Got it!" Peter cried as he grabbed Lola over his shoulder. He bent down to pick up the unconscious ProtoFloramon, just as a huge deafening blast was heard. A large blue werewolf wearing a jetpack has emerged from the blasted floor, revealing the entire castle was floating in the air.

"Hurry!" the werewolf howled. "Get out through the hole, and we'll be able to blast them!"

The metallic dinosaur was quick to act, grabbing Peter and his passed out friends, and flew through the hole in the floor, using his purple wings. The werewolf was holding the satanic angel for a bit, and then followed them. As soon as Peter saw that the werewolf was out of the castle, the metallic dinosaur started roaring.

"GIGA BLASTER!"

"HOWLING CANNON!" A cry was heard from the blue werewolf as well.

Peter could see the satanic angel dropping after them in a glimpse, before the smoke of a giant torpedo launched from the dinosaur's chest has engulfed him. Throughout the smoke, Peter was able to see a blue ray of light shooting towards the floating castle, at the same direction the torpedo was heading.

As the sound of the huge blast faded, Peter noticed his dinosaur partner was landing on the ground. The large metal claw of the reptile placed him and the passed out bodies of Lola and ProtoFloramon on the ground carefully. A brilliant red light glowed, and he reverted back to ProtoGreymon. The werewolf was nowhere to be seen.

"Good job buddy…" Peter comforted his tired companion, who have already began drifting into a deep sleep. A loud sound of an object falling to the ground made Peter jump. As he looked towards its source, peter saw the disintegrating remains of the satanic angel's winged mask, whose right half was painted white, and the left one black.

The purple cape of the Wizardmon who saved them came slowly a few minutes later. Peter picked it up.

_'Never Again.'_ He swore.

Peter looked at the battered body of his blonde love interest. An aching feeling passed through his heart, as he watched the bleeding bruises across her entire body. A pile of huge leaves have fallen from the trees due to the shockwave caused by the blast that decimated the fallen angel. Peter covered Lola's body with a couple of them, and started creating makeshift clothing and bandages from the rest for her.

_'She wouldn't want to be seen like that…'_ he thought.

**2.9 Harvest Moon 3.2**

* * *

><p>Slowly but surely, Lola was waking up. Her head was spinning, and any movement of her arms or legs caused her deep pain. Flashback of her tortures were interrupting her thoughts, causing her to gasp each time they blinked in and out of existence. Lola mustered the pain, and gently raised her hand towards her face. She could feel the swelling all around her left cheek, and imagined the right one to be in a similar shape. She vaguely witnessed images of a satanic angel standing behind her, laughing maniacally while whipping her with a long spikey whip made of somewhat elastic metal. Her hands shuddered at the thought.<p>

Lola noticed huge leaves were covering her body, and realized her night gown was all torn and bloody beneath them. She turned her head to the side, just in time to see the rising sun towering over the ocean in the horizon. In front of the red sun, a shadow appeared.

"Lola… How are you?" ProtoFloramon asked. The plant digimon got closer, and Lola saw a concerned look on her face. "You were hurt pretty badly there…"

"I'm not dead…" she said, couldn't determine for herself if she was being cynical or not. When Lola ran away to Paris, she never imagined she would have gone through something like that all over again. She turned her head to the other side, and saw a pile of woven leaves, with a hand written note on top of them. She recognized her name on the top of the note. She slowly got up, and sat for a few minutes, letting her head realign itself with the gravity. The small digimon was all nervous, waiting to catch her if she fell. Lola reached for the note, and unfolded it in front of her eyes.

_Lola,_

_I made you some new clothes if you'd like._

_I'm sorry, but you are better off without me._

"When did they leave?" Lola asked, trying her best not to cry. The digimon in front of her looked slightly guilty.

"When I woke up…" ProtoFloramon mumbled apologetically. "I tried to stop them… but…"

"It's OK." Lola tried to calm her friend, but the tone came out numb. Tears started dropping down her swollen red face, and she started crying her heart out. The digimon, unable to comprehend what was happening, joined her in the weeping.

_'You stupid son of a bitch!' _Lola was screaming in her mind. Holding the little note close to her chest.

**End of Part 2**


	6. 3-1

**Part 3**

**3.0 The Psychologist**

* * *

><p><em>Patient No. 1337<em>

_The questionnaire filled by the patient seems extremely peculiar. At times, he cannot answer the most simplistic questions, and at time, he ponders about the meaning of life and death. I could not determine if his psychological state is in on the same level of the sociopathic spectrum as the other referred to me by this company. I wonder what they are doing in there._

_Either way, it seems like they are making progress. Hopefully I'm not too wrong with my assessment. _

**3.1 Harvest Moon 3.3**

* * *

><p>A few minutes later, when she finally stopped crying, Lola found out she was on a large continent now, far away from the island where the Flora Repository remained hidden. The discovery was possible due to the tip Peter gave her about GPS a few days ago. Lola looked at the cloths woven from leaves the runaway man has left her. There was a small skirt, which looked a lot like the one worn by native Hawaiians. A top part was also woven from the leaves, looking like a band to hold her breasts out of plain view. Lola noticed the blood-stained leather jacket that belonged to Peter remained behind as well, and felt the tears coming back. The small digimon by her side tried to comfort her, but to no avail.<p>

The months passed, and as Lola and ProtoFloramon wondered throughout the huge continent they arrived at, the young woman have started to immerse into the culture of the digital world. She has taken up healing and treating wounded digimon who crossed her path, and the rumors started circling. Some of them called her Healmon, others Doctormon. Lola kept talking to her patients, her passion for information about Peter and ProtoGreymon increasing with each failed attempt to find information. From the little she did managed to gather, one thing was clear. Peter had not completely disappeared from the face of the earth.

Some of the rumors talked about a wondering digimon they called Roninmon and his RizeGreymon partner, walking across the world, helping those in need. Others mentioned a figure called the Savior of Hell-Hold, a fearful warrior riding a MetalGreymon, who once destroyed the floating castle of torture that belonged to satanic angel. The one thing in common to all of them, was the mention of a human, and a subspecies of a Greymon traveling along him. The two partners never stayed at one place for more than a couple of days, always keeping several days of advantage against the pursuit Lola conducted after them. But she never gave up, needing to hear the reason that made him run away from her.

"Look Lola!" ProtoFloramon cried, pointing towards the horizon. "There's a town just a few kilometers from here! Maybe we could find some information!"

Lola did not think they would find out anything new. The wandering fighter seemed to be very careful regarding this, never revealing his face, but she did not want to crush the hopes of her friend. As much as the leafy digimon has grown in the past few months, learning the trade of medicine from Lola, and gaining her self-confidence, it seemed like she was eager to show this to ProtoGreymon, the one she once regarded as a big brother, and let him know she can take care of herself now.

_'A noble goal…' _Lola thought. _'Mine is slightly more selfish though…'_

"Come on, let's get there before the night falls." Lola said, trying to keep the positive attitude she's been faking for the past few months. She has already sent a few text messages to Peter's phone, the same way she did when they fought the demon-goat digimon, but received no answer, nor any indication that the message was received. She has almost given up on all hope, but her spirit kept her walking further, not wanting to give up on the one person she truly connected with in this strange new world.

A traveling salesman's cart was rolling past them, carried by two Monochromon. "Hey! Can you give us a ride to the town over there?" Lola asked loudly.

The cart stopped, and an orange digimon shaped like a puppet of a monkey came out. "Oh it's the Healmon!" he said, admiring. "For you, anything! Thanks for taking care of my cousin!"

The two companions climbed to the cart, and Lola remembered an Etemon she treated a few weeks earlier. This sort of favors she was getting was rather regular business, as digimon wanted to pay her back for treating their dear ones for free. The only other healers in the digital world were all Shamanmon, and they charged a lot for their overpriced, unhelpful service.

"Thanks! How is he by the way?" Lola asked. "Has his arm healed properly?"

The Etemon looked grateful for her to remember his cousin. "Oh yes, everything you do is a miracle Healmon!" He answered. "He asked me to tell you he would like to marry you for his gratitude? Will you accept?"

Lola laughed. She was getting a lot of this proposals as of late, apparently the concept of marriage was finally grabbing a hold in the digital world. She suspected ProtoGreymon might have something to do with this, trying to make his partner realize he needed her. The little lizard always seemed too eager trying to set the both of them up.

"I'm sorry, but Lola is not free for a relationship right now!" ProtoFloramon answered, a little bit too guarding.

"Don't be rude!" Lola scolded her. "But yeah, I'm not looking for any wedding anytime soon."

The orange monkey seemed a tad disappointed. "Well, the ride is still free of charge for you two!"

ProtoFloramon laid her head in Lola's lap, and drifted into a deep sleep. They have been walking across this wasteland for the better part of the week by now, and the cart ride was a blessed change in scenery. Lola looked at her clothing. She has gathered a lot of primitive jewelry, tokens of gratitude from her patients she did not have the heart to refuse to. Many clothes were also offered to her, a few dresses and such, but she opted to stay with the woven leafy skirt and top Peter has made for her. It felt like the only connection to Peter she was still able to hold onto.

_'Please come back…'_ Lola prayed silently.

**3.2 Lone Wolf 3.1**

* * *

><p>A blue and white striped werewolf, clad in a blue jeans and a chest belt, was running through the empty fields surrounding the town. He has just realized he lost track of the blonde woman, and after hours of searching, he lost all signs of her. His employer won't be too happy about it. The lonely warrior who traveled the land has specifically hired him to watch over the blonde woman and her digimon partner, and made it very clear that he won't tolerate any mishaps.<p>

He has grown rather accustomed to the brief chats he had with the wandering Ronin and his greymon-esque partner. He hoped he would still be able to have those chats, discussing the latest happenings in the digital world. As he passed a cart pulled by two Monochromon, the werewolf increased his speed, trying to reach his employer as fast as possible.

**3.3 Harvest Moon 3.4**

* * *

><p>"Thanks!" Lola called at the Etemon trader, as he dropped them in a city called Byteville.<p>

"No problem Healmon!" He shouted back, climbing his cart. "There's a small inn in the city, if you're looking for a B&B!"

_'I wished they stopped calling me Healmon…'_ Lola sighed as she pondered. "So where's this inn he mentioned? I'd like to get a warm cup of coffee before we call it a day."

"I think it's that way." ProtoFloramon pointed at the main square of Byteville. It was clear that something good was standing there, as the crowd of digimon in the entries street was walking towards that direction. They both started walking down the main street, passing through colorful well lighten windows displaying the various bits and pieces the traders offered for sale.

In the central square, they found a bunch of street artists performing, drawing huge cheers from the crowd. There were fire breathers, jugglers, sword-eaters and many more. Lola contemplated how this would all be much more exciting in the real world, than over here, were digimon could breathe fire at will.

As they strolled passed the crowded square Lola noticed an old Baromon sitting in front of a small bonfire, with a small number of fresh digimon sitting around him. He was telling them a magnificent story of bravery and heroism, and they were all hanging on the edge of their seats in suspense. Lola smiled, and decided to sit in and listen. ProtoFloramon was excited to sit by her side, listening to the great tales of thrill and adventure.

"This is a story that happened not too long ago!" The Baromon started telling a new one. "Once upon a time… An angel came down to the earth, to protect the digimon who lived on a small and remote island…"

The old story teller was obviously pausing in well planned locations in the text, enhancing the effect the story had on the baby digimon.

"At first, all the digimon liked and hailed their new ruler. He brought them peace and prosper, and protected their villages from any feral wild beasts."

"But then, something evil was stirring within the beloved ruler. He grew greedy for power, and decided to lay ruins to the ancient temples where all the digimon prayed. He defiled and destroyed their holy structures, and his once loving subordinates were now afraid of the leader."

"Anyone to speak up to the now evil angel, was jailed inside the leaders floating castle of obsidian stones. And such was their fate for a long period of time. And then, only a few months ago, a savior has come to their rescue. A peculiar digimon, never seen before, has arrived to the small island, riding a giant MetalGreymon. With a single blow he decimated the obsidian castle of evil, and freed all the digimon who were locked up in there, giving them their life back."

"But the savior was never seen again. Some say he roam the land. Others say he is on a quest to find his one and only true love. But all we can do is speculate, and hope that when we will need someone to save use, he will come to our help!"

The baby digimon whispered with excitement, talking among themselves. But Lola was quiet. She bit her lip to hold onto the cries she wanted to let out. The story has brought up long forgotten memories from her time in Hell-Hold. Tears started to slowly well in her eyes. ProtoFloramon noted this, and laid a hand around Lola's back, trying to comfort her. But she was slightly wrong in the cause of her weeping. Lola was thinking about Peter, and how the rumors around him continue to grow, but failing to realize one single hurtful truth. He was not searching for his loved one, he was running away from her.

"Don't cry, young one." The Baromon approached her, offering a small napkin. "It is just a story…" he patted her shoulder, but suddenly stopped. Lola looked up at his face, an understanding look was all over his colorful masked face.

"I was in Hell-Hold you know." He told her. "I was rescued by the savior. I wouldn't want to touch any soft spot over here, but I have a feeling you know him."

Lola's tears continued to drop, and she nodded.

"You do look similar to him. Some say he is a digimon, but I know he is not. You are the same." The Baromon said in an explaining tone. "I think I know why you are crying. Listen to me now, child. Go to the local inn, the Seventh Layer. Tell the barkeep I ordered you the top floor room. Get a fine meal and a good night sleep, and I'm sure all will be fine in the morning."

The Baromon was so nice to her. He reminded Lola of an elderly man who lived next to her door in Paris. The elder was the only one to take care of her when she ran away from her abusive husband. He cooked for her when she was a wreck, and taken care of her rent for the first month before she found a job. A loving and caring human being. Lola felt the urge to hug the elderly digimon.

"All will be fine, child…" He said, comforting her as her tears wet his brown cape. "Do as I said, and I promise, all will be fine in the morning."

The elder continued walking with her and ProtoFloramon to the Seventh Layer inn, and whispered a few words to the barkeep as they entered. Faster than she could speak, three large plates of all kinds of fruits and vegetables were laid before her. A small pitcher of bytebeer was served as well, to quench her thirst. Lola tried to pay for the generosity of her host, but the Baromon refused to accept any money.

"Consider it a debt paid in full." He said. "It's truly my pleasure to help you."

Lola finished the great feast that laid before them, and climbed the stairs towards the bedroom on the top floor. ProtoFloramon told her she would be staying in the main hall of the inn for a while, trying to fish out some information from the barkeep. As she opened the wooden door to the room, a large king-sized bed was revealed to her. A large tub filled with hot water was standing in the left side of the bed.

Lola looked at it, and felt it is time to take a warm bath and relax her body. It's been ages since she bathed in warm water, and she missed the feeling. She took of her wooden tokens, and leafy skirt and top, and entered into the hot wooden tub, letting her head fall backwards. Her eyes grew tired of the fumes around her, and she began to feel sleepy.

**3.4 Lone Wolf 3.2**

* * *

><p>The blue werewolf entered the local pub. He found his employer resting against a wooden column in the main hall, the high collar of his long short purple cape hiding his face. His reptilian partner was hitting the bar, drinking what seemed to be his fourth pint of bytebeer for the evening.<p>

"I have important news boss!" He said as he sat in front of the caped man, who moved his head a bit, showing he was interested. "Last I heard, she rented a room in the Seventh Layer, right here!"

"How did she get here so fast?" The man asked. "I was supposed to have at least two more days before I need to get off!"

"I think she hitched a ride with an cousin of one of her patients." The werewolf reached his paw towards the man. "I'm sorry, will you still hire me?"

The man shook his hand, and nodded. "But before you continue tailing her, I'd like to look at her one last time. It seems I will need to disappear without any rumors following me this time."

"She's in the top floor suite of the Seventh Layer." The bipedal wolf told him. "Managed to extract the information from the Baromon story-teller at the fair."

"Thanks for the intel. Here, take a bonus." The man left a large pile of bits on the table as he got up, and left through the front door. "Tell the drunkard over there I'll be back before the morning."

The werewolf sighed in relief as the man walked out of the pub, and moved to sit next to the drinking lizard, who was ordering his fifth drink for the night.

"What's up brother?" He asked, ordering a pint of bytebeer from the Gatomon waitress.

"Oh, WereGarurumon bro, long time no see. I'm peaches, how 'bout you?" ProtoGreymon answered in a rather lively manner unsuited for a drunk.

"Boy… you are one of kind buddy…" WereGarurumon told him, sporting a devilish grin. "One of kind… I bet you paid that Etemon trader to give her a ride over here, didn't you?"

"So what if did?" The reptile taunted him. "I have every right to do whatever I want with _my_ money!"

"I just heard a Baromon told her story about the savior of Hell-Hold, and she cried her soul out in the square." The werewolf continued. "He then gave her his room in the Seventh Layer. A rather pricey suite for an old story-teller if you ask me…"

"Ahh… I love it when a good plan comes together…" ProtoGreymon sighed, quoting a line he heard while watching one of the theatrees. "Finally managed to bring these two morons together. They were oozing sexual tension from the day they met, yet both of them are just way too shy to do anything…"

"I'd hate to be on your wrong side…" WereGarurumon laughed, and took another sip from the glass of beer.

"You got it wolfy." ProtoGreymon winked at him. "Now let's go and get ProtoFloramon before she stumbles upon something she's not supposed to see."

As the two friends paid their bill to a busty Angewomon who worked as a barmaid, WereGarurumon was thinking about the lovely time he had since taking on traveling with ProtoGreymon and Peter. He just wished the human who was fated to be his own partner would still be alive.

_'But that's all past now. I should make sure I don't lose these guys to the armada.'_

**3.5 Harvest Moon 3.5**

* * *

><p>The sound of an opening door made Lola wake up. As she opened her eyes, she saw a tall silhouette standing against the wall. The moment the man in the purple cape saw that she has was awake, he started walking towards the door. Lola got up, paying no attention to her naked body, and ran up to him. She grabbed him with both of her hands, and made him turn around and face her. A familiar shade of deep green was looking at her from his eyes, and Lola felt her emotions rising up. She slapped him as hard as she could. The man looked surprised, and as he paused, Lola approached forward, kissing him.<p>

After a few seconds, Peter back away, and freed himself from her hold. He tried to turned around and walk away. "It was a mistake." She heard him talking to himself.

"Stop! You bastard!" She yelled at him, and indeed he kept standing, his back turned towards her. "After all this time, this is everything you have to say?"

Lola saw he was wiping his eyes. "I cannot face you anymore…" He said.

"Why?" Lola was almost screaming. "Why couldn't you stay with me? Exactly when I needed you the most?"

"Because!" He yelled back. "Because it was my fault! It is my fault!" the young confident man that Lola once knew was not there at the moment. The man in front of her was a wreck, and he started to fall apart in front of her eyes.

"Your fault? What do you mean by that?" She asked.

"I told you to enter the temple alone." The man was crying, something she have never seen him do, or even imagined he was capable of. "I sent you alone, and he caught you. He tortured you and it's my fault!"

"I swore to myself I'll never let anyone else go through this!" He carried on, unloading the events that burdened him. "I was a soldier you know… We were going through all those small ghettos, destroying people's houses, tearing families apart, all in order to catch some lousy terrorist. I could live with that. But then I found out my commander was torturing the women whose houses we were searching. He raped them, and I never realized it until it was too late!"

"I tried to report him, but the kicked me out. Dishonorable discharge. Pchht." He spat on the floor. "I swore an oath that day. I swore no one else will be tortured because of my ignorance. And then here I am, sending the one person I truly needed to defend around here to get kidnapped and tortured! I'm Pathetic! They call me a savior, but their wrong. I'm just an idiotic fool…"

Peter was sitting on the floor, grabbing his head with his hands. Tears were dropping from his face, who were breathing in an obvious panic. Lola was surprised by this burst of honesty. Peter was much more filled with sympathy and empathy than she thought.

"I just couldn't look you in the face and know that I caused it…" Lola felt sorry for the man in front of her, and wanted to take the pain away from him. He did not know it was not the first time something like that had happened to her, but she was not going to tell him. She felt such knowledge would only push his soul further towards the edge. Lola thought of what the old Baromon has told her, and realized the elderly story teller might have set up this entire situation.

Suddenly, she knew what she needed to do to get this man out of his dark place. She sat down on her knees, leaning towards him.

"You're not the only one who experienced pain, you know." She whispered. "When I woke up, I was sore and bleeding. I needed you there to support me! And you left! Like a little cowardly mouse!" Lola was on the verge of tears by now.

"But I forgave you… Now come with me. Please!" She begged. "A few months ago I told you it wasn't a no. Make it a yes!" She kissed him again, and this time, Peter did not back away. He blinked a few times, and then got up. He picked her up in his hands, carrying her to the bad, and laid her gently on the soft mattress. He dropped the purple cape to the floor, and laid next to her. He kissed her, and threw his heavy dust-covered boots at the door to close it.

"Thank you." He whispered.

* * *

><p><span><strong>Author's notes:<strong>

_A huge change of scenery and atmosphere is upon the story with the next part. As the time goes on, the heroes assimilate into their new surroundings, and embrace more and more of the customs of the digital world. Some of you might have noticed it, but the descriptions of the digimon encountered by the heroes are now accompanied by the digimon's name, unlike in previous chapters, reflecting the knowledge of the digital world they have come to learn._

_P.S.: As you may have noted, I like to use the technique of POV narrative for each sub-chapter, one i borrowed from the great GRRM. while there are not that many POV character in my story, I hope their thoughts and inner-feelings are intriguing enough to make you believe their interests, as they definitley do that for me._

_Have fun, and good day!_


	7. 3-2

**3.6 Hack n' Slash 3.1**

* * *

><p>As they laid in bed, his arm hugging her delicate body, Peter admired the transformation that Lola has gone through in past few months. She was so much more self-assured than he remembered, and wondered how he have changed. He was grateful for her, for taking him out of the darkest corners of his heart, and bringing him into the light. Her love has erased all the burdens he held within him, and after spilling his inner-most conflicts to her last night, Peter finally felt cleansed. He was suppressing those feelings for the past five years, working around the clock to be able to afford an apartment in Rome, or so he thought. What he was really doing was running away. Running away from his past, from his own feelings. And as he met Lola around here, he continued running. He was too afraid of the notion of hurting any innocent soul again he was willing to let his own soul go down the darkest path of all. The path of loneliness.<p>

Peter looked at the sleeping beauty in front of him, her blue eyes opened wide, staring directly into his. "I love you." He said, dropping the final stone that laid on his heart. Finally free of all setbacks, he felt elated, and smiled at her.

"I know…" She said. "I love you too."

* * *

><p>In the following morning, as Peter and Lola went down to the main hall, they found ProtoGreymon, ProtoFloramon, and the now degenerated ProtoWolfmon eating breakfast already.<p>

"Lola, I want you to meet ProtoWolfmon." Peter introduced them. "He's the one who helped us against the Mephistomon back in the island, and helped me rescue you from Hell-Hold."

The blue wolf cub got up from his chair, and shook her hand. "I've been keeping an eye for you." He said. "But it seems like you are far more than capable of holding to your own."

They joined the light meal on the table, catching up on what have happened to all of them in the last six months. Peter noticed ProtoGreymon was all too smug, and knew he must have done something that made him all too proud of himself. ProtoFloramon seemed happier than he have ever seen her. She must have been relieved to have everyone back together again.

"I heard the fair would be stopping at Byteville for the next few days." ProtoWolfmon said. "I thought it would be nice to take some time off and go sight-seeing."

"That sounds lovely…" Lola marveled at the thought. "It was all so enticing last night…"

"Sure, why not…" Peter said. "We can all have a day or two for ourselves now."

The little reptile winked at the two humans on the table, causing Lola to blush. ProtoWolfmon burst into laughter, and ProtoFloramon looked all too confused.

"I love you man… Just love you…" the wolf cub tapped on the yellow dinosaur's shoulder. Lola started laughing as well, and Peter could not help himself but join in. It was nice finally having a small talk after all those months. He really did missed those banters they shared together.

* * *

><p>Peter and Lola walked around the city square for a while now. The digimon went to get some ice-cream, but they both wanted some time for themselves. They walked slowly, silently, a small breeze blowing at their faces. Peter looked at Lola's hair moving in the wind, and marveled the sight. He never thought he would enjoy from such trivial details. Colorful flags were hanged all around the main street of Byteville, and street-sellers has set up stalls on every available lot of land. The sight was incredible indeed.<p>

"Oh look and behold travelers!" A deep voice was talking loudly. "I present before you the most priceless item in whole of the four domains!"

Lola stopped and listened, she seemed intrigued, and Peter stood by her, listening in as well. A flying ghostly cactus wearing a sombrero and a poncho was standing on a podium, a small crowd of digimon around him.

"This map I hold," The Ponchomon pointed at a worn piece of old parchment in his other hand. "Is a map to the fabled artifacts of legends!"

"Most of you already know the story, but for those who don't, here's a quick summary! Long before the digital world was created, our creator's spirit drifted upon the endless sea of bits! Over the course of seven cycles, he shaped developed our world into existence. The creator did his best to shield use from the evil viruses in the clouds, but not everything was in his power."

"To help use guard this world, the creator built ancient temples to house incredible powers known as the upgrade chips, to make the chosen guardians of the world capable of digivolution at will. But when those were not enough, he built one last dungeon, to hold the most powerful weapons of all!"

"But what does this have to do with the map you ask? Well my friends, this very map I hold is the last clue given to use by our creator to the location of the weapons of legend! And I'm willing to sell it to the highest bidder!"

Many of the digimon surrounding the podium sighed and left.

"It's just an old fairy-tale!"

"Everyone know the creator does not exist!"

Were some of the calls they were shouting. But Peter was intrigued. "Excuse me! Sir!" he called at the disappointed Ponchomon leaving the podium. The ghostly cactus turned around. "Those upgrade chips you talked about… is there any chance the look like control chips depicting an object rather than a digimon?"

"Why of course, youngling!" The Ponchomon said, his long tongue rolling out of his mouth. "Is it possible that by any chance you have seen one? I have been looking for them for a while now!"

"Like this?" Peter showed the digimon the image of the Heavy Metal upgrade in his phone.

"By the creator!" The Ponchomon gasped. "It is you! The savior of Hell-Hold! Only the worthy ones are able to wield those chips, and you must be one of them!"

"He's not the only one." Lola interrupted, showing him her Fairy Dust upgrade chip. "Don't you think the renowned Healmon is worthy of one as well?" She seemed a tad insulted that the digimon did not recognize her the same way as he did Peter.

"Of course! I apologize I did not recognize you, Healmon." The cactus bowed in respect. "You treated my father well when he was sick! Thank you! Listen up! You two seem like a very worthy couple. I'm willing to give you the map for free if you'll do one thing for me."

"Really?" Lola asked. "What for?"

"Will you sign a picture of you two for me? I could sell it easily for a couple of megabits in the forum!" The excited reaction embarrassed Peter a bit. He was still not used to be regarded as an idol. Lola took a selfie of the two of them, and as the camera flashed, she kissed Peter. She sent it to the Ponchomon's memory card, a small chip he held in his poncho that digimon used to keep images. She signed it with a swirly writing, and handed Peter the pencil. He drew a perfectly round circle, and signed it with the letter P. the Ponchomon handed them the map, and took off.

"Thank you very much!" he yelled as walked away. "OMC! Honeybeemon is gonna pay me so much money for this one…"

"Why did you give him the photo?" Peter asked, baffled a bit at the sudden public display of affection. Digimon all around them were beginning to whisper among themselves, starting to understand who the two humans were. "Even if what he said about the upgrade chips was true, this map still seems like a fraud."

"Well if you hated it that much, I can take back that kiss." She said and winked. "Look, the map is a drawing of the city. Let's just have a nice little treasure hunt while we're here. Please?"

**3.7 Harvest Moon 3.6**

* * *

><p>Lola did not wait for Peter to answer her question, and grabbed his arm, leading him to the point where the map pointed was the start of the treasure hunt. Standing in the middle of the city's square, Lola gazed around her, savoring the beautiful sight of the fair in front of her. She recalled the country fair that used to travel next to her town back in her childhood days. Every year when it had arrived, Lola could not wait to go and visit. The colorful fabrics, the magnificent tales, and the enticing smells of spices have always installed her with a sense of wonder and amazement she could not explain.<p>

Peter took the map from her hands, and started navigating the two of them around Byteville, following the path painted on the painted worn parchment. As they crossed what seemed like every street, road and alley in Byteville, the two of them had reached what seemed to be a dead end inside a small, cramped, alleyway.

"Are you sure you didn't mess up?" Lola asked the young man with the purple cape. "The map clearly states we should continue forward from here..."

"I did not mess up." He told her. "They must have built this alleyway after the map was drawn…"

"You said the map was a fraud only half an hour ago…" The sudden change in her lover's mind baffling her.

"I know… But look over here…" He said, pointing at the small compass drawn on the map. On both sides of the ornamented drawing, two small colored symbols were painted. The one on the east was an orange ball surrounded by a thin orange circle. The one on the west was a green outline of a heart. "It's the icons of the control chips' apps."

"You think this might actually be real?" She said, the connection clicking in her mind. "That the map will actually lead us to those legendary artifacts?"

"Perhaps the rest of the way was sealed off, like the temples on the island." Lola remembered how the doors opened only by the use of the strange application in her phone. "Thus making everyone else believe the weapons don't even exist…"

Lola had to admit that sounded plausible. The only problem was there was no stone door in sight. They were standing in a dark, cramped, and yes, quite smelly, back alley.

"Should there be, like, a carved symbol or anything?" She asked, pondering aloud.

"Just because there were carvings and huge stone doors in the temples on the island does not mean there should be some here." He told her. "Back when we approached the temple where you were…"

The man paused for a moment. Lola nodded as a sign she was fine, and he continued.

"I noticed some of the rocks along the road had other carvings on them, all virtually the same. A circle inside a square, inside an octagon." The description sounded extremely vague. "Perhaps there's one of those over here…"

Lola looked at the dirty floor beneath her feet. A faint shine caught her eye. At first, she thought it was just a reflection of light at a drop of smelly liquid of some sort, but then she realized there was not enough light in the alley for that to happen.

"Over there." Lola pointed. Peter looked at it, and started wiping the floor in the vicinity of the shining object. A stone carving was revealed on the floor, consisting of the three encircling shapes Peter has described to her. Both of their phones started beeping, and Lola knew what they needed to do. She looked at Peter, who took out his own phone, and nodded. The caped man nodded back, and they both tapped the control chips' applications. Bright white light white has emerged, and the floor where the carving was faded, clearing the way for a hidden staircase. Peter turned on the flashlight app of his phone, and started leading the way down the dark staircase.

**3.8 Hack n' Slash 3.2**

* * *

><p>"So…" Lola said, stretching the sound of the word. "Where did you get this cape?"<p>

They were descending down the stairs for a while now, and the silence has been awkward. He touched the back of the small purple cape at his back, recalling the sights he saw in Hell-Hold.

"It used to belong to a Wizardmon." He said, not very keen to talk about his own savior, who died in the process. "He freed me from the dungeon in Hell-Hold. When he died next to me, I swore I will never forget his sacrifice."

Lola stayed silent for a few moments, probably lamenting the relation of the Wizardmon to her own rescue from Hell-Hold. Peter hoped it did not bring back any memories she was struggling to forget.

"Hey –" he turned to face her, but was interrupted.

"I think it looks good on you." Lola said, stopping him from talking. "You should keep it to honor him."

Peter smiled, and continued descending, taking Lola's hand. "If you say so." He told her.

* * *

><p>After approximately twenty more minutes of climbing down the stairs, they have finally reached the bottom floor of the hidden basement. The floor was paved with huge yellow stones, as well as the walls, which had stone ornaments stretching around them. At the far end of the paved road, a huge altar made out of metal towered across the empty room. Lit torches stood on each of the altar's sides, making it cast a long shadow over the yellow paved floor. Atop the altar, two shining objects laid, glimmering with each passing stroke of the dancing flames behind them.<p>

As the young man and woman got closer to the altar, Peter got a closer look at the two items on it. Two the left, a huge broadsword, with a yellow metallic hilt was jammed into the stone of the altar. The blade of the sword seemed to be split into three smaller blades, all looking as sharp as the blade of a Japanese katana. To the right of the altar, a large staff with two circling ornaments laid against the wall. The ornaments looked like two snakes, one white and the other black, entwined along the entire body of the staff. Two wings sprouted from the staff's head, painted green, in a position reminding the way an angel is usually portrayed.

"Amazing…" Lola said in an owed voice. "The map was actually real…"

"I don't know…" Peter said. "From what the Ponchomon said, I had the notion they would look more like… I don't know… control chips."

"Does it matter?" Lola asked. "For all we know those are still only very expensive and artsy pieces of metal… Do you think we should take them with us?"

"Well, the door was hidden to everyone but us…" Peter said. "And throughout all of those temples we found, they always seemed to be placed carefully there for us to find them… I think those artifacts were meant for us."

Lola reached for the ornamented staff. As she grabbed it, it glowed faintly with a purple light for a brief second. The woman looked at the staff, passing her other hand along it. As Peter witnessed the blonde woman in leaf-woven clothes that stood in front of him, waving her hand across a the large staff, the image of a sensual witch doctor came to his mind. Lola looked extremely attractive like this, and he resisted the urge to kiss her right on that moment.

He reached for the yellow broadsword, pulling it out of the altar's stone foundations. To his surprise, the fit was not too hard, as the sword slid out of it like the stone was actually made out of butter. A faint yellow glow emerged from it as he touched the yellow handle for the first time. Peter swung the sword around to check it, and was marveled at how it fitted perfectly into his hands. Suddenly, the three inner blades of the sword split apart, making it seem much more dangerous.

"Be careful with that…" Lola said, her voice sounding as seductive as the sight of her was to him.

Peter could not resist the urge anymore. He placed the sword on the floor, and moved towards the blonde woman, kissing her, stripping her out of the leaves she were wearing.

**3.9 Lone Wolf 4.0**

* * *

><p>The three digimon sat down at a table next to an ice cream stand at the main street of Byteville, run by a nice Frigimon. The happy face of ProtoFloramon has exerted calm over ProtoWolfmon while sitting there, enjoying their own day off. It's been a while since he had one. For the past four months on Peter's pay-roll, he has been on guard duty, watching Lola, gathering information from shady characters around the digital world, and occasionally helps ProtoGreymon fight some viruses as the more ambitious ones decided they want to try and make everyone else's miserable.<p>

But having this day off allowed him to recharge his batteries a bit, and he had to admit, that felt good, having a day in which he had no burden on his mind, a day where he is not busy investigating the rumors about the armada. As much as the blue wolf wanted to make the killers of his own mother and his would be companion, he just had to rest. So much anger will do no good to him. At times he felt like his chest was about to explode, trying to contain the resentment he felt towards the armada, and it frightened him. He suspected that if let free, this hatred will consume him, making him no better than the armada.

A faint sound has interrupted his thoughts. ProtoWolfmon looked up, using his enhanced ears to pick up any strange sounds that might follow, and indeed the sounds came. It sounded all too familiar, the constant loud drumming that came out of the mouth of the mightiest machine in the world. He realized that the rumors has caught up with them. The armada is invading Byteville. For six whole months he has been trying to catch up to them, and now they sneaked on him from behind.

"ProtoGreymon!" He called at the yellow dinosaur who, along with the small plant, still seemed unaware of the approaching doom. "Take ProtoFloramon and find Peter and Lola! The armada is invading!"

The reptile stopped licking his ice cream cone and listened carefully. The sounds of the machineguns, the tanks, and the sniper rifles were now closer than before. Even ProtoFloramon was starting to hear them, and a fearful expression was all over her face.

"Don't waste any time! You cannot digivolve without them!" He shouted again, starting to glow in a blue light. "I'll hold them off as much as I can!" WereGarurumon roared in his place.

As the yellow reptile grabbed ProtoFloramon and started running, WereGarurumon turned around, looking at the city's gate. "It's payback time!" He growled.

The punk werewolf started dashing towards the gate, directing the fleeing digimon to hide wherever they can. A few Knightmon and Guardromon had joined him, led by a wandering Flamedramon fighter. The entire group of warriors shouted their battle-cries, and clashed with the incoming wave of Commandramon. The horde of pixelated purple dragon infantry was weak when fought one on one, but when they grouped in such masses like this… WereGarurumon was not sure that Byteville's ragtag group of defenders was up to the challenge.

The fighting was harsh. At first, they slayed the Commandramon without too much effort, holding the line at the gates of Byteville, though slowly, but surely, they were starting to lose ground. WereGarurumon saw one of the Knightmon at his side disintegrating into data, when a bullet from the sniping rifle of a Sealsdramon caught him. The werewolf jumped atop the wave of pixelated infantry, rushing towards the sniper.

"KAISER NAIL!" He yelled, thrashing his sharp claws into the flesh of the Sealsdramon, which disintegrated into data the moment he was hit. WereGarurumon turned to check on the defenders of Byteville, and to his shock, saw that all but the Flamedramon commander were already dead. The Commandramon army was swarming the city.

_'Byteville is lost…'_ he thought. _'I must get my friends and get out of here. Hopefully…'_ he did not want to finish that last thought, and started running through the horde of purple small infantry, slashing at them as he ran through.

After a few minutes of searching amidst the intense massacre around the city, WereGarurumon stumbled upon the two wandering digimon he was seeking. They were hiding beneath a turned over stall. The minute he saw them, he heard the sound of a running Tankdramon entering the city. Those were the most elite troops of the armada, and that meant their target was total annihilation of the city. The image of his dying would be friend crossed his mind, and WereGarurumon decided he will not let that happen again. Deep blue light surrounded him that instance. The images of the life of a human soldier started flashing through his eyes, images in which he saw the same human he witnessed dying a few months ago.

_"I swear to serve and protect the innocent civilians of each country I will serve at!"_

He heard the human soldier swearing at some sort of ceremony. _'And so do I.'_ he thought. The blue light faded, and in the place of WereGarurumon, a new blue wolf was standing. It was clad of blue metallic armor, and a huge cannon was mounted on its back.

"ZEED CANNON!" The armored wolf called. The back-mounted cannon accumulated light at its muzzle, and fired it at the wandering Tankdramon, wiping it from existence. But all was not done yet. A battalion of addition Tankdramon was entering though the city's gates.

"Come on! Run!" The wolf, known now as ZeedGarurumon cried. "Find Peter and Lola!"

A few more shots of the wolf's cannon disintegrated three more Tankdramon, as the two rookie digimon emerged from the turned over stall, and started running away. ZeedGarurumon turned to face the attackers, intending to hold them off, but he heard a blast from behind him. To his shock and horror, he missed one of the Tankdramon that stood in his friends' path of escape. The shot from the tank's cannon was immense in power, and dust was floating all around the air where the two digimon were last seen by ZeedGarurumon, blocking him from seeing them.

**3.10 Hack n' Slash 3.3**

* * *

><p>The two lovers were climbing up the stairs back towards the streets of Byteville. Each of them was now carrying a large artifact, and their ascent was significantly slower. A weird smell reached Peter's nostrils about halfway through the long staircase. Peter tried to discern it, and was worried by the results. It was a smell he was all too familiar with, the smell of war, comprised of smoke, sulfur, gunpowder, and the most sickening ingredient of all, blood.<p>

"Something's wrong." He told Lola. She looked as if this was her first time smelling war, which was probably true. "We have to hurry and find our partners. I fear they might need to evolve right now…"

"What is it?" Lola asked him while they started running up the stairs. "The smell… it's awful…"

"It's a massacre." Peter said. The laconic answer seemed to have motivated Lola to run faster, her concern for ProtoFloramon probably overflowing by now.

Peter felt scared, truly scared, for the first time in the last six months. He remembered what it was like to fight a war in an urban territory, and it was disgusting. Corpses, blood, and body parts were everywhere. No place was left untouched, every good property of the city would be decimated. He strongly wished their partners were still OK.

_'ProtoWolfmon should be able to hold the attackers off… for a while.'_ He thought. _'Such a strong smell… it must be the armada I keep hearing about…'_

The day light started shining through the top of the stairs, and Peter hastened to reach it. When he emerged into the sun, he found himself surrounded by smoke. Shots were firing at all directions around him, and he could discern small infantry troops marching in the general direction of the city's square. One of the troops strayed towards the alley in which he was standing, just as Lola reached the surface as well. The small pixelated purple soldier raised its machine gun to fire, but Peter quickly rushed towards him, unsheathing the huge broadsword for the first time, slashing at it, out of pure instinct to defend Lola. The small trooper disintegrated as the blade touched it.

"Lola, stay behind me, I'll clear us a path." He started ordering her, gathering as much as he could from his own war experience. "If any of them shows up from behind, protect yourself using the staff and call me. Try to hold on as much as you can. Understood?"

The terrified blonde woman nodded, and he started advancing slowly towards the ice cream stall where the two of them left the three digimon.

Slowly sneaking from alleyway to alleyway, they made their way across the main street. Occasionally, Peter had to slash at a random Commandramon trooper that noticed them, but no notable mishaps has occurred so far. Peter turned to check on Lola. Just he saw she was fine right behind him, a shot from a sniper rifle pierced his hand. The two of them immediately backed into the alley they were at, as Peter moaned in pain.

"Damn it…" He said, holding the smashed hand, the blood flowing from it in an alarming rate. "I need both hands to wield this stupid-ass giant sword…"

Lola let a small cry as the Sealsdramon who fired the shot neared them, and her staff began to glow brilliantly. The light emanating from it glowed around Peter's shot hand, and healed it in a brief moment, just as the sniper was entering into the alley. Peter threw the giant blade at the special ops digimon, disintegrating it.

"How did you do that?" he asked Lola, but as he saw the amazed look at her face, he knew she had no idea either. "Never mind that, let's go one."

At last they reached the place where the ice cream stall used to be. Even from a few hundred meters away, they could here there was an intense battle going over there. They both peeked into the street, and were shocked. In front of them, surrounded by a dozen Tankdramon, was standing a blue armored wolf, desperately trying to fend off its attackers. Peter looked for the other two digimon, but was terrified by what he saw. Scattered around the entire battle-ground, where the yellow and green body parts of their digimon, slowly disintegrating.

Peter heard Lola screaming behind him, as he started crying as well. Standing over there, crying, Peter knew he should take Lola and run away, but he did not care about it. All he wanted was to avenge his fallen comrade. Just before the final pieces of yellow body parts disappeared, Peter could swear he heard the faintest whisper calling his name.

"FULL METAL BREATH!" A roar was heard from the surrounded cyborg wolf. The cannon mounted on its back fired, accompanied by missiles and bullets from practically every available hidden slot in the wolf's metallic armor. The entire horse of Tankdramon dissipated into the smoke, and the metallic wolf ran towards the two humans.

"Come on! Climb on my back! We must get out of here!" Peter did not want to listen to it. Lola looked up to the wolf, her eyes red and swollen from crying. But he knew the wolf was right. Their partners and friends were gone now, and there was nothing more they could do for them. They better run away before they will be overrun by the advancing armada.

After making up his mind, Peter grabbed the frozen woman who stared at him, and climbed on top of the blue metallic wolf. As his hands cling to the various pins on the blue armor, the wolf began running, jumping across the roofs of the town once known as Byteville. For some odd reason, as they left the smoldering ruins of the town, Peter felt his phone warming up. For the slightest moment, he thought hope still exists to rescue their friends, but the warmth faded, leaving him with nothing but grief and despair.

**End of Part 3**


	8. 4-1

**Part 4**

**4.0 The Colonel**

* * *

><p><em>The sound of the alarm was ringing loudly. People all around the control center were running, checking things in books, and typing like there was no tomorrow. The colonel himself was stressed out. It was the first large scale test run of the Yggdrasil program, and everything has just gone to shit.<em>

_First, there was the quantum jolt. He has expressed his concerns from using untested quantum computers technology, but the developers were keen that this sort of machine was the only thing powerful enough to run their program. How on earth did he agree to use a particle accelerator powered computer as a server? What was going on in his mind at that time?_

_But the jolt was the least of their worries. As soon as it ended, it became apparent that a group of hackers known as the Fallen Angels has infiltrated their network. While the developers were seemingly helpless, the experiment itself was a huge success. It took just under fifteen minutes for the monstrosity known as Yggdrasil to repel the attackers. And that included a time in which the system was still warming its motors._

_The six hours that followed were relatively peaceful, but now, everything was collapsing. It seems the Fallen Angels have left some sort of a Trojan horse in the system, and it was starting to rampage throughout the secure network, deleting pieces of code related to Yggdrasil, and destroying the processors that calculated them._

_"What a fucking mess…"_

**4.1 Harvest Moon 3.7**

* * *

><p>Lola just sat there. She sat on a stone she found in the small forest in which Peter and ZeedGarurumon deemed hidden enough to stay. She sat on the stone, and stared at her phone. She looked at the application with the icon of a green outline of a heart. How could Peter not do the same? Did he and ProtoGreymon did not share the same bond that she shared with ProtoFloramon? How could he just ignore the fact that their most trusted companions in this world have just died?<p>

"How can you…" She whispered. "How can you ignore them?"

"We will have time to mourn them later…" he changed the subject. "Right now we must concentrate on hiding our tracks."

"No!" Lola found herself standing, she could not remember when she have done that. "They deserve a proper treatment! All they ever did was to protect and help us! And you just left them there! They deserve the time I give them!"

"You think I don't miss them as well?" Peter yelled, his fist clenching. "He was the best friend I had in years! But I had to make a choice, the long gone remains of a dead friend, or the living body of another! And I chose you!"

Lola remained silent. She did not want to admit it, but he had a valid point. At times, she wished she could be as practical as Peter, but it always seemed to have come in an emotional cost she was not able to pay. The young man turned his back to her, and continued to set up a disguise around the small cave they were in, covering it in leaves and branches, making it look like it was collapsed a long time ago.

ZeedGarurumon returned, carrying dry branches and some fruits in his mouth. "We seem to have lost them for now…" He sighed, degenerating into ProtoWolfmon in a light blue glow.

"You dropped this when we were entering the forest…" ProtoWolfmon said, handing over the ornamented winged, serpent entwined, staff.

Lola took the staff, and stared at it. She remembered how it healed the piercing wound in Peter's hand. She started crying silently, regretting for not trying to use it on her now dead friend. She replayed the day's events in her mind. It was the first day she had with Peter, first day with their love for each other confessed anyway, and she wanted to make the best of it. She took the picture for the Ponchomon, in order to use the map as an excuse to be alone with him for some time, an excuse which worked all too well. Perhaps, if she wasn't so desperate for his touch back in the hidden catacomb beneath the city, just perhaps, she might have been able to get to ProtoFloramon in time.

An old dried straw bedding hidden deep within the cave seemed inviting to sleep in. Lola laid on it, curling her legs towards her chest, and tried to fall asleep. Fall asleep and never wake up.

**4.2 Hack n' Slash 3.4**

* * *

><p>Peter was standing guard at the entrance to the small cave, when ProtoWolfmon was exiting it, joining him. The small blue wolf cub was visibly tired and exhausted.<p>

"Go get some sleep, I'll take the first watch." He said to the wolf cub, but the wolf continued to stand by.

"He was a good friend of mine as well, you know." The wolf patted on Peter's back. Peter noticed the wolf's eyes were red, but obviously not from exhaustion.

"Is there any custom you digimon do here to honor your fallen friends?" Peter asked him. "Back home, before we bury the corpses, we hold a ceremony in which all who feel the need to do so speak about the dead."

"Usually there are no corpses left to bury here…" ProtoWolfmon answered. "We don't hold any special ceremony. We just, you know, speak our hearts to them."

The longer Peter thought about it, the more it seemed to fit ProtoGreymon. He could not see the small joyful lizard acting ceremoniously when he tried to imagine it. This sort of mourning might work for him, but Lola obviously needed something more.

_'Is this the first time she lost someone close to her?'_ He thought. Being in the battle field, Peter has already lost some friends and comrades before his own eyes, and has attended several funerals. But what about Lola? Has no one she ever cared for died before? Perhaps that was the main point of difference between the two of them. Lola has not been hardened by death before. Coming to think of it, Peter was not even sure where Lola was born. She told him she lived in Paris these days, but before that… Well, her accent was most certainly not French.

Peter remembered the first time he witnessed death. It was during an army practice which involved live grenades. One of the soldiers in Peter's platoon was struggling to throw the grenade far enough, and unfortunately, it landed near a group of other soldiers, the safety already long gone from the grenade. One brave man in the group jumped atop the grenade, and contained the blast with his body, probably saving the entire group, at the cost of his own life. It was a horrific sight Peter could not have forgotten.

"I'll tell you what," ProtoWolfmon spoke again. "I'll go gather some more supplies, and when I get back, I want you to take the time to say your goodbye from him."

Peter looked at the blue wolf cub walking away from him towards the forest. He could not shake the thought that this one has already seen death, and not for the first time. Peter looked at the bright metal of the huge broadsword laying against the cave wall next to him. The blades and the hilt, as ornamented as they were, struck him as being to empty.

"Hey!" he called at the blue wolf cub. "If you can find any sharp stones, would you please bring them to me?"

**4.3 Harvest Moon 3.8**

* * *

><p>Lola woke up from with cold sweat all over her face. She hoped for a dreamless sleep, but her mind has not been kind to her. The image of the disintegrating green body parts kept plaguing her dreams, interrupting each one at the very moment ProtoFloramon was about to appear in them. A loud screeching sound was heard from the entrance to the cave, and Lola realized it must have been the sound that woke her up, as she was sure she would have preferred to stay asleep, even with those terrible nightmares, just because of the possibility that her friend my appear again in the dream, a thing she was surely cannot witness when awakened.<p>

Lola kept sitting on the dried up straw inside the cave. She pondered about the six months she spent with ProtoFloramon, trying to come up with some sort of an obituary, but the only thing she was able to come up with were tears. At last, Lola made up her mind. ProtoFloramon would have liked her to just remember, even if she cannot express her longings with words. She got up, and walked towards the edge of the cave, where a small blue wolf cub was sleeping.

Outside of the cave, she found Peter sitting. The huge broadsword laying in his lap. When Lola saw what he was doing, it became clear to her that he was responsible for waking her up. The young man was carving something into the blade of the sword, using crude jagged stones, and producing the screeching noise. Lola peeked over his shoulder, and saw three words carved into each of the blades of the split sword.

_Vaccine, Vengeance, Victory_

"Each of us has his own way of mourning." Peter said suddenly, startling her a bit.

Lola felt bad for lashing at him earlier, at retrospect, it seemed somewhat selfish. All he was trying to do was making sure that she was safe, and she lashed at him, directing her self-loathing at him, as she felt she was responsible. If she hadn't taken that picture…

"Look, I'm not trying to be too cold or anything, but you should listen to me." He said. "It's not the first time I've seen death on the battlefield, and it is not the first time it was the death of a friend. Don't hold everything inside, if you need to talk, or just need to be listened to, then tell me. I'm right here."

"Perhaps later…" Lola said, feeling somewhat relieved, as far as that feeling could be applied to their situation. "I'm sorry about earlier… I'm just – I mean, I'm not used to –"

She could not finish the sentence. She felt the tears coming again, and tried to stop them. Peter got up, standing next to her.

"Let it out." He said, putting his arm over her back. Those three words were enough to make her burst into tears again. "Just let it out…"

**4.4 Lone Wolf 4.1**

* * *

><p>ProtoWolfmon rose to take his turn at guarding the camp. As he stretched his muscles, he could not help but feel weird. It have been many months since he last visited this cave, the cave in which he sword to annihilate the armada, and now because of the very same sadistic army, he got there again.<p>

He looked around the cave, and noticed Lola was not there. A small peek past the makeshift camouflage made it clear to him that she was having some private time with Peter. He coughed loudly, and gave them a few seconds to finish their business before he walked out.

"Are you feeling better now?" He asked Lola. The genuine concern he felt for the human female astounded him. He was not accustomed to have such feelings in such short time of acquaintance, even if you count their previous encounters. Lola nodded in return, her eyes obviously still red from crying, but her general expression was somewhat more content, as if she have come to accept the reality upon her.

"There's something you two should know…" He started, ready to spill the beans over his past encounters with the armada. "It's not the first time I lost someone to the armada."

"Back when I was a little cub, my mother and I lived in this very same cave we are at. One day she went to fetch for food, only to return shot and wounded, her body pierced with bullets. At her last breath, she told me to look out from the armada."

"And so I kept on living, trying to survive on my own. Then, one day, I saw a human appearing out of thin air. I was excited. I was sure he was going to be my friend and companion, and end my long months of loneliness. But just as I was about to approach him, he was shot down by a Commandramon from the armada."

"That day, I swore I will end the armada. And this is my trigger. I'm going back to their base of operation, and I intend to destroy it. I'll be leaving next morning, make sure you are prepared to get out of here by then."

"I'm coming with you." Peter said in a decisive voice. "You are not the only one to lose a dear person to this war machine. It's about bloody time I stop running from my battles."

"It is highly unlikely that any of us will survive." ProtoWolfmon warned. "The armada is led by a mega-level digimon. I think it is called Darkdramon, but I cannot be sure. As far as I am aware, no one have ever seen him and lived to tell about it."

"Then you'll need me as well." Lola joined the conversation. "This staff can heal, both Peter and I saw it. You will need every help you can get. And it will be the best use of my time around here."

"We're with you buddy." Peter continued. "You want have to go through this all alone. Not with friends by your side."

_'Friends…'_ The sound of the word made him smile.

**4.5 Hack n' Slash 3.5**

* * *

><p>The two humans and the wolf-like digimon laid on top of a small hill overlooking a giant mechanized fortress. The view was a terrible sight to witness. The walls of the fortress were black as coal, and encircled what looked like a giant elaborate steam powered machine, exerting smoke as black as the night. Hordes of Commandramon were conducting trainings in the inner courtyard, and the sound of shooting Tankdramon was heard occasionally.<p>

"The purgatory…" Lola whispered.

Peter could not have described the fortress better himself. He looked at the delicate body of the woman next to him, and felt bad for getting her into this place. The entire ordeal was reminding him of Hell-Hold, but as he moved to look at her face, he scraped that thought. A look of vicious determination was staring at the fortress, prepared to exact her own vengeance.

"You can still leave if you want." He told her, though he knew what her answer would be.

"I'm here for ProtoFloramon." She said. "Besides, once you two imbeciles go get yourself killed over there, I'll have no one left to be with. With this staff you might just have a chance to live through it."

"The sun is setting." ProtoWolfmon stated what they both were starting to notice. "As soon as it is dark, we move out."

"We'll sneak in through the there." Peter pointed at the eastern side of the fortress. "I noticed there was a small hole in there when I scouted the area earlier. ProtoWolfmon, you will reserve your strength for when and if we encounter Tankdramon. I can take care of the others myself. Will need every bit of stamina we can save for the final confrontation. Are we clear?"

The woman and the small wolf nodded. Peter turned his head towards Lola, addressing her privately. "This world… it's not like ours. We were drawn here by some sort of a flicker in reality. If there's the slightest chance that we will wake up in our own world when we die…"

Lola kissed him for the last time before they died, and he knew that. It tasted like a goodbye.

"I'll be at the Eiffel tower. Come and find me." She whispered.

Peter moved first through the hole. He crouched for a few minutes, waiting to see if there was a guard nearby. A helpless Commandramon passing by was the first victim put the sword this evening.

"The name of the sword… the Avenger. This is for you, ProtoGreymon." He whispered. "The road is clear, move in!"

Slowly, the gang of three sneaked through the courtyard, and into the heart of giant machinery of war. A few more Commandramon fell the blades of the Avenger along the way. Fortunately for them, it seemed the Tankdramon were training in field on the outside, so there was no need for ProtoWolfmon to use his energy. The further the trio moved into the vast interiors of the fortress, the more Commandramon and Sealsdramon they encountered. When faced against the champion leveled Sealsdramon, Peter was no longer able to dispatch them with a single blow, but required a tiresome one-on-one fights with them. At times, the Sealsdramon would strike him with their knives, causing deep gashes in his skin.

Lola would hurry to heal him using the power of the staff, but as she did it often and often, Peter could sense that the act was draining her powers. He tried his best to avoid getting hit, but to no avail.

"Do you think we're close?" Lola asked after her last foray as a healer. "Do we even know if Darkdramon is present in here?"

"He will…" ProtoWolfmon answered. "Once we conquer his throne…"

After two more hours of venturing further into the blackest reaches of the giant war machine, the three warriors arrived at two giant black metal doors.

"This must be it." Peter said as he pushed the left door towards the room that laid beyond it.

As they entered into the mouth of the abyss, they found the entire room consumed in complete and utter darkness. ProtoWolfmon glowed in a blue light, evolving into ZeedGarurumon, and at the perfect timing, no less. A large, ominous, purple portal opened before them.

A huge bipedal creature slowly emerged from the portal, clad in dark purple armor. Yellow striped decorated the armor, primarily on the limbs, one of which terminated at a massive fearsome lance. Light blue jets erupted from the back part of the armor, giving the creature an angelic looking wings of blue flame.

"ZEED CANNON!" The blue armored wolf wasted no time, and started attacking the monstrosity before them. Flashes of blue light exploded all around the purple armored warrior, only to dissipate into the air, not even leaving a scratch on its armor.

"GIGASTICK LANCE!" Darkdramon roared, and impaled the blue wolf using the lance attached to its right arm. ZeedGarurumon failed to the ground, howling in pain. Hordes of Sealsdramon began pouring into the hall where the battle was taking place. Peter stood beside Lola, striking at any approaching hostile.

But his power was waning. How long could he hope to be able to hold the broadsword straight up? Certainly not much longer. He looked over his soldier, and saw ZeedGarurumon trying to get up to his feet, only to be impaled again by Darkdramon.

"I could really use your help right now, ProtoGreymon." Peter let the thought out loudly, just at the moment he could feel his phone burning in his pocket. Bright yellow light emerged, engulfing the entirety of Peter's body. As he looked at Lola, he saw a pink light engulfing her as well, seemingly coming out of her phone.

For one of the most relieving moments in his life, Peter could hear the voice of ProtoGreymon shouting at him from the world beyond.

_"I got your back, bro!"_


	9. 4-2

**4.6 Harvest Moon 4.0**

* * *

><p>The pink light engulfed Lola. A high pitched voice was whispering at her hear. A voice she was struggling to remember for the past couple of days.<p>

_"As long as you have my control chip, I'll always be by your side…"_

Lola could feel the staff sucking all the energy that surrounded her. The pink light disappeared, only to reappear again in a might burst of energy out of the staff. An intense jolt of pain ran through Lola's body, causing her to scream loudly. It felt like her skin was stretching into unthinkable reaches, being shaped like some sort of a playing dough by an unseen hand. Lola felt her hair rising up, curling within itself, and hardening to the point in which strokes of hair became one solid mass.

At last, the pain subsided. When Lola looked at her the staff again, she noticed her clothes were different. White sleeves and where covering her arms, made of a material similar to that of the petals of a flower, seemingly connected somehow to her own body, as if the sleeves where an extension of it. A revealing Pink corset was covering the upper part of her body, whose skin was seemed to be colored pink as well. The white petal material composed her skirt as well, and pink fishnet stockings covered her legs. The serpent entwined staff was held in her left hand, while a new pink scepter was in the right one. By a reason unknown to her, Lola knew the name of the creature she has become. Lotosmon.

Lola remembered seeing Peter being engulfed in a yellow light as well. A tall humanoid creature, with muscular body stood in his place. The creature was reptilian in nature, and covered in yellow scales. Yellow metallic armor covered his body, and a silver helmet ornamented with a yellow metallic V shape was covering his head. The tri-bladed broadsword of Peter was held by the giant dragon man, and two pieces of metal looking like wings were attached to its back. Lola knew the yellow dragon man's name as well. VictoryGreymon, it was called.

Acting out of pure instinct, Lotosmon ran towards ZeedGarurumon.

"Serpent Cure!" She said, not knowing what it meant. A white aura erupted from the serpent staff, and engulfed the injured blue wolf. When it faded, all marks of injury were gone from the blue wolf's armor, who was standing upright again, ready to fight.

"Dramon Breaker!" The VictoryGreymon called, slashing at the hordes of Sealsdramon around them, by a matter of mere seconds, the entire room was clear of them, leaving the three mega-leveled digimon to tackle on Darkdramon by themselves.

"Peculiar…" The purple armored digimon whispered. "Computing the odds of digital and organic beings merging genetic material… Results are in. Probability not calculable at current accuracy. Attempting deletion of hostile processes. Resorting to most generic procedure. TERRIBLE GAZE!"

A strange beam was shot from the eyes of the evil digimon, hitting ZeedGarurumon, VictoryGreymon and Lotosmon. The three digimon froze in their places. Lotosmon felt numb, unable to move her hands or legs, barely able to keep on breathing.

"DEMON STAB!" Darkdramon growled, and struck VictoryGreymon with his lance in full power. The yellow armored dragon man collapsed to the ground, his own particles starting to flicker, occasionally blinking out of existence.

Lotosmon could not bear the look of it. She could not let her loved one die, not when they were so close. If only she could move her arms enough, perhaps, just perhaps she would be able to heal him again. Despair grew inside of her as she failed to do so. The numbness has taken over her body, rendering her all useless.

_"You love him Lola… Use that as your power. The same way you love me..."_

The voice of ProtoFloramon came through once again, rejuvenating the strength of Lotosmon. She was right, her love has already brought the leafy digimon back from the dead, in some way. Her love for Peter, a love much different, yet still strong as much as the first, should be able to do the same.

"Peter!" Lotosmon screamed.

**4.7 Hack n' Slash 4.0**

* * *

><p>The scream pierced through the veil of darkness that surrounded VictoryGreymon's sight. A scream, as frightened as it was, that was driven by sheer love.<p>

_"You got her back as well, and so is wolfy's. Avenge me brother!"_

An aura erupted from VictoryGreymon's body, reconfiguring his data into a more solid form. He could feel his own particles rejoining together, tightening his grasp on reality. As the power surged through his body, VictoryGreymon pulled the two pieces of yellow metal attached to his back, and combined them together, forming a shield.

"Victory Shield!" The dragon man jumped in front of Lotosmon just in time to block another deadly attack of Darkdramon's lance, as the surprised dark entity withdrew, VictoryGreymon's comrades finally came to their senses, shaking their hands and legs, moving again. VictoryGreymon was amazed at his newfound power. So much strength flowed through his body, and he could barely contain it.

"Darkdramon!" He called, pointing the broadsword at the armored dramon type digimon. "Your reign of terror ends here! No longer will you terrorize and destroy the digital world and its inhabitants! For this is the day you die! TRIDENT GAIA!"

The yellow broadsword's blade split again, and this time VictoryGreymon attached the extra blades to his arms. Energy from the entire atmosphere concentrated on those blades, just before he fired them.

"This one is for our friends! SEVEN'S FANTASIA!" Lotosmon yelled, as rainbow colored aura erupted from the staff she was holding, expanding towards Darkdramon.

"And this one, is for my mother! FULL METAL BREATH!" ZeedGarurumon growled, firing every last missile, bullet and cannon hidden within his armor.

VictoryGreymon released the concentrated energy in the blades attached to him, and the three attacks traveled in an alarming speed towards Darkdramon. Just as the attack struck the purple clad digimon, it roared again, this time at a voice far more deep and ominous than before. Shots of dark energy flowed from him at all direction, as the digimon itself started disintegrating.

For a minute, VictoryGreymon thought it was all over. They have destroyed the armada, and have somehow lived through it. But it was too early to call such decisions. The dark rays fired from Darkdramon at his dying moments concentrated around the center of the room. The purple digimon was starting to materialize yet again, and the dragon man was plunged into despair. He looked at the fairy next to him, and saw the body of blonde woman falling from it. In the corner of his eye, Peter saw what appeared to be a worn out army uniform laying on the ground.

Before he could comprehend it, Peter was thrown out of VictoryGreymon himself. He looked at Lola, confused, and saw she was at the same state of mind as he was.

**4.8 The Prototype**

* * *

><p>"Don't be afraid." VictoryGreymon said to the bewildered humans.<p>

"You have done more than enough for this world," Lotosmon added, smiling at them.

"Now, it is our fight." ZeedGarurumon joined in.

The three digimon began to glow. As the dragon man vanished in a burst of yellow, the fairy in a burst of pink, and the cyborg wolf in a burst of blue. A brilliant white light engulfed the two humans. The last thing they could hear before the light blinded them were three single words.

_"I AM PROTOMON"_

**4.9 Harvest Moon FINAL**

* * *

><p>Lola opened her eyes. She was in her bed, in her apartment in Paris. The sun was rising over the Seine, which could have been seen from the window above her bed. The alarm clock was beeping like crazy. Lola looked at it, and it said the hour was eight o'clock.<p>

_'Was it all…? A dream?'_ She pondered. She unlocked her smartphone. The date on it was January 1st, 2020. Lola browsed through the apps installed on it, but found no trace of an icon of green heart outline. _'Well, perhaps… there's one more thing I should check though.'_

She opened the photo gallery, and browsed through it. To her own relief, she found a single picture dated at January 1st, it was a selfie of her kissing a young man. The leg of a reptile could be seen in the background.

_'He is real…'_ Lola thought. _'He must be. He must be real…'_

The days past, and with each one, Lola went to the Eiffel tower, and waited. Hoping for Peter to find her, that it wasn't all just a dream.

**4.10 Hack n' Slash FINAL**

* * *

><p>Peter's back ached like hell. He somehow has fallen over his chair in a backward motion, landing flat on his back. A vague recollection of a lizard and a blonde woman lingered in his mind. He looked at the computer screen, and saw that the Milman &amp; Co. wire was finished successfully. He was two million dollar richer now.<p>

A beeping sound interrupted his thoughts. Peter looked at the alarm in his phone, which showed the hour was already seven o'clock.

_'Weird… I could have sworn it was midnight… did I pass out?'_ He wondered, and as he did, his eye caught an icon consisting of an orange orb surrounded by an orange circle disappearing from his phone's home screen, and the most important memory came back to him.

_"I'll be at the Eiffel tower. Come and find me."_

Peter remembered loving in what seemed like another life, yet he knew he must find the blonde woman in this life, and he had only one clue. It struck him that he have never asked Lola for her last name in the digital world. A choice has been made in his heart, and Peter dug deeper into his computer, and started searching the internet for any clues about Lola's identity. He wanted to come prepared for what he was about to do, and he would hate to see it fall apart due to a misunderstanding.

Before he left Rome, he stopped at a goldsmith, asking for a pair of golden rings, each ornamented with a unique symbol on the inner side of the ring. One sported an outline of a heart, and the other, a ball surrounded by a circle.

As he first saw the image of Lola standing beneath the Eiffel, he was thrilled. It was like seeing her for the first time again, as he felt his heart trying to burst through his chest. In a way, it was indeed the first time they saw each other. When he saw her, she came running to him. They both kissed, and Peter knelt, offering her the ring engraved with a heart.

"Mi vuoi sposare?" he asked in Italian at first, forgetting she probably understood nothing of that sentence. After a brief awkward moment in which the woman looked at him, blushing, he corrected himself.

"Will you marry me?"

**4.11 Epilogue**

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><p><em>Hello and happy new year for our viewers!<em>

_As a new year emerges on us, we are pleased to announce that in a most astounding development, all the comatose patients of the incident known as Y2K2 have awakened from their coma, all at the same time. As of now no official sources can confirm what the cause is, but we remain hopeful that the mystery will come towards a conclusion in the following weeks._

_In a worldwide operation, conducted last night simultaneously in multiple countries, the Interpol has announced the hacker group known as the Fallen Angels has been arrested. The group is most notable for hacking into the servers of a large UN research group five years ago, wreaking havoc and destroying years of research in what could have become the world's first artificial life form._

_In other news -_

A tall man with a shaved head and black glasses got up from the bench, pulling the headphones out of his ears. He was dressed in a black suit, and looked fairly imposing. His target was approaching a young couple sitting on a bench with their newborn baby.

* * *

><p>"Now you two…" An old man said as he sat between Peter and Lola. "You two are hard ones to find…"<p>

"I will kindly ask to go away now, please." Peter said, his hand covering the trolley in which the baby slept in a defensive manner.

"Oh, with most pleasure. But I think you'd like to hear my answers first." The man said cryptically.

"Answers? To what questions?" Lola asked him.

"Were the digimon real?" a shocked expression appeared on the young couple's faces as the old man said this. "You are wondering how I know about this. Well, let me tell you."

"I used to be a scientist. We were working on a secret government project called Yggdrasil. The stated target was to develop 'Artificial Sentience'. And oh boy, did we succeed. On our first attempt, the program became aware to its own existence, and started asking question most humans take a few years before they could comprehend."

"But soon enough, it grew aggressive, so we shut it down, and began planning our way again. We came to the conclusion that letting the sentience develop within a universe containing moral issues and dilemmas will be the best course of action to make it a calmer being. We developed a massive Quantum Computer, the first of its kind to be powered by the collision of particles in a particle accelerator, all to give it enough processing power to create an entire universe."

"But on the first test run, we had problems. It was January 1st, five years ago. First, there was the quantum jolt. Then, a group of hackers known as the Fallen Angels left us a nasty surprise on the servers. It took the program some time, but after seven hours, it was able to delete all the contaminated files from the hard drive."

"So what does this has to do with you? I bet you can see the parallels. The quantum jolt was an amazing thing. It was able to transfer the conscious of people from every corner of the world into the program, making them part of it. People like you two."

"So, the entire digital world… is your creation?" Lola asked. "But there were so many different digimon there, and ancient temples, and cities and forests…"

"We created a world, my dear." The man said. "And then we gave it time to evolve. That was the result. The temples though… that is something else. Throughout the rewriting phase of Yggdrasil, we implanted some parts of the earlier code used in the failed first attempt. We thought we sealed and separated it well enough, but three of its subroutines managed to awaken. We called them Fenrir, Idun, and Nidhogg. A wolf, a plant, and a dragon. I believe you have been acquainted with them… Somehow, they were able to restore the prototype of Yggdrasil into existence, and helped in expelling the Fallen Angels from our systems."

"Then, the second quantum jolt happened. This time, we were ready, and our monitoring systems were already online. We caught a glimpse of the prototype as his data was deleted along with the Trojan horse. But we also saw the most peculiar thing ever. We saw two sets of data disappearing along with him, sets that were never part of the system. Sets the resembled only one thing, human DNA. While it did took us time, we were able to rebuild the two sets of DNA, and were able to reconstruct the bodies of those individuals. Dare I say its pleasure to finally meet you in person?"

Lola seemed disgusted a bit but the sentence. Peter moved towards the old man, but a muscular tall man in a black suit stood before him, coughing lightly. Peter's hand returned to its place, and the old man continued to talk.

"So now we come to the interesting part. The part in which I am making an offer to you. An offer you'd be fools to refuse to. You see, you two are the only ones to survive long enough inside Yggdrasil to remember what really happened, the others who were drawn via the quantum jolt, and there were others who entered Yggdrasil via the first quantum jolt, are all dead or recently awaken from amnesia inducing coma. My employers would like you to zip your mouths about it, a task you have been doing on your own for a while now, because you are obviously not fools."

"But they wanted me to sweeten the deal a bit, give you a small incentive. So here it is: You two lovebirds will shut your mouths, Peter stops writing anonymously in that conspiracy theorists blog – yes, we know about it, and in return, I will give you these." The old man took out three small SD cards out of his pocket. One was painted yellow, the other green, and the last was blue. "The way I see it, your husband is supposed to be a somewhat decent programmer. He should be able to figure out what to do with it."

"So… Deal or no deal?"

* * *

><p>Peter was typing as fast as he could. Lola stood over him, holding their daughter in her hands. As little clue as she had when it came to computers, the things he was typing away this instance where the most important thing to her, second only to her husband and daughter.<p>

A large black window filled with white letters was all over the computer screen. Peter stopped typing, and turned to look at his wife.

"Qui va niente…" He mumbled as he pressed the Enter key on the keyboard. Text was being written to the screen, stopping after a while, a small marker blinking constantly at the end of the text wall.

**$ sudo sh yggdrasil-start**

**Loading digital world program...100%**

**Searching for pre-made entities...**

**Found 3 pre-made entities to load**

**Allocating memory for container...100%**

**Creating instances...100%**

**DONE!**

**An instance of Yggdrasil named NG has been created **

**Awaiting user input... ««**

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><p>[1] Quantum Jolt – a concept in quantum mechanics, here referenced as a jolt in the probabilities of reality, referencing the possibility of particles to appear where the laws of physics as governed by Newton and Einstein predict they cannot be. Such an event is considered to be at a very low chance of happening, with the chance lowering the bigger the body in question is.<p>

[2] The code section at the end - stupid security stuff in the website won't let me upload it in the correct version, so you get here a shortened version.

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><p><span><strong>Author's notes:<strong>

_Thus ends the story of Digimon::NG. Writing this fanfic was a huge joy for me, as I finally got to craft the digital world in a setting that has some sort of grounding into real life concepts of computers, networking, and physics, aspects of science and technology which are very dear to me. The thrill of discovering a new world is one I always enjoy, and I hope the story has taken you there as well._

_I will post an appendix in the future, containing some information and background details that were not written into the story but definitely lingered in my mind as I wrote it. Hopefully you'll find the explanation's in it satisfying enough for you._

_Have a great week!_


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